Yashodhara Bangera
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Dec 30: Security at the Alva's campus at Vidyagiri in Moodbidri has been reinforced since Monday December 29 evening, after news of tweets attributed to a person named Abdul Khan threatening to trigger blasts at the college campus appeared in the media. 

Abdul Khan reportedly tweeted claiming responsibility for the Bengaluru blast and said that he could be contacted at Alva's College, Moodbidri.

As soon as the news was aired on news channels, Panambur assistant commissioner of police, Ravikumar, and local police sub-inspector, Ramesh Kumar, visited the campus and made elaborate arrangements to strengthen security. Additional police personnel were deployed, and the policemen got busy with the task of checking bags and other belongings of persons seen to be moving about in the area.

At the same time, a barrage of calls was made to chairman of Alva's Education Foundation, Dr M Mohan Alva, from all over the state by parents of Alva's students, who were concerned about the safety of their wards. Principals, heads of institutions, teaching staff and employees working in the offices of different institutions in Alva's campus too received similar calls from worried people.

To ward off worries of parents of over 18,000 students pursuing education here, Alva's management arranged to send bulk messages to the cell phones of the parents. The management said as of now no student with the name Abdul Khan is studying in the educational institutions run by the organization, and that records are being scrutinized whether any such student had studied here in the past.

Speaking to media persons, Dr Mohan Alva noted that with the growth of technology, there has been manifold increase in the efforts to spread fear and terror in the society. He said that the security system in the country should suitably hone its efficiency and equip itself to tackle this problem. He felt that the security should be so sharp that the agencies should be in a position to arrest those who use social sites like Twitter to spread terror within five minutes.

Dr Alva assured the parents of students that there is no need to become panicky, and that security at the campus of the foundation has been strengthened. He said that police have heightened the security at the campus even in normal days, and that there is no case for being apprehensive about the situation here.

Meanwhile, taking swift action, the Bengaluru police suspended the Twitter account of Abdul Khan who is said to have sent out the tweets to the media channels. The police urged the public not to pay heed to such rumour mongers.