New Delhi, India
Days after a wave of bomb hoaxes affected several Indian flights, at least 85 flights of IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and Akasa Air received similar threats on Thursday (Oct 24).
These threats targeted 20 flights from Air India, 20 from Indigo, 20 from Vistara and another 25 from Akasa Airlines, according to officials.
Till Thursday, over 250 flights have been impacted by hoax bomb threats in the past 10 days.
The Central government is planning wide-ranging legislative actions to deal with bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators on the no-fly list.
Over the past eight days, the Delhi Police have registered eight separate First Information Reports (FIR) in connection with bomb threats to over 90 domestic and international flights.
'X abetting crime'
Indian government officials held a virtual meeting with the representatives of social media platforms such as X and Meta and airlines to discuss the issue.
The virtual meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve and the officials said that the situation amounts to "X abetting crime" while asking the representative what steps they have taken to stop control the spread of such rumours.
Watch | Hoax Bomb Threats Impact Several Indian Flights
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology pulled up X and Meta over what is being as their "non-cooperation" regarding investigations related to these waves of bomb threats.
All the handles, engaged in the bomb threats through messages, were found to be fake.
The ministry pointed out that prompt response is needed to ensure that the perpetrators and repeat offenders are identified swiftly, and nabbed," a source said.
The IT ministry also pulled up the companies for "delays" in providing user details of the fake handles, allowing the perpetrators to go undetected.
(With inputs from agencies)