October 24, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba'an 6, 1422

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: A letter to Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani was sent for chemical testing on Tuesday after it was found to be carrying powder which aides feared might be anthrax, an official said.

The official said a clerk who opened the letter in Advani’s heavily guarded office in the Indian capital found white powder inside the envelope.

“It is badly smudged, one can’t make out from where it has been sent,” he said.

A second letter addressed simply to the “Home Ministry” was left unopened after a clerk thought there was powder inside it too. Both letters were handed over to police for anthrax testing.

More than a dozen anthrax scares were reported over the weekend across India after people received mail laced with white powdery substances.

But police said laboratory tests did not confirm the presence of the anthrax bacteria and suspected the incidents to be pranks.

Local media reports said mail sorters in four major Indian cities will be given masks and gloves to prevent infection from the deadly anthrax bacteria.—Reuters