More bomb hoaxes ruffle Bangalore

BANGALORE, INDIA — The headquarters of Bangalore-based outsourcers Wipro and Infosys Technologies were evacuated Monday night following anonymous calls warning that bombs had been planted on the premises, according to Bangalore police.

A small Wipro office was the target of a similar bomb hoax last week. In that case, police arrested an employee of the company who allegedly made the call to test the preparedness of the police to deal with such a threat.

Bomb hoaxes are common in India, with businesses, airports and government offices often targeted by pranksters. But the recent incidents appear to have been triggered by documents found earlier this month on three terrorists killed during an encounter with Delhi police. The documents showed that the terrorists, from the Lashkar-e-Toiba group, which wants independence for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, were planning attacks on Bangalore software companies.

The evacuation of staff from Infosys on Monday night had a minor impact on service and productivity, the company said Tuesday. The evacuation process was quick and the buildings were restored for reoccupation within an hour, Infosys said. The few staff there at the time were primarily from the company’s business process outsourcing subsidiary, according to one source.

The disruption at Wipro’s headquarters was also marginal, since the facility primarily houses corporate executives who were not at work at the time. Officials at Wipro have declined to comment on the hoaxes.

The main outsourcing providers in Bangalore have business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place, but the hoaxes and resulting publicity have been an irritant to them.

“We are confident that no bomb can be planted in our premises, given the high degree of physical security we have in place at our facilities, but we also can’t take risks and deny the police the right to investigate the premises,” said an official at one outsourcing company in Bangalore.