RAWALPINDI, April 30: A hand-written note threatening suicide attacks on two local courts on Monday triggered a security sweep through the district courts overnight and vigilance during the day but the threat proved hollow.

Security sources told Dawn that the unsigned note was found in a “Complaint Box” kept outside a courtroom and specified the courts of District and Sessions Judge Khwaja Imtiaz and Special Judge Khalid Bashir as targets.

Its writer warned of “suicide attacks” but with the weird declaration that “I am an ex-terrorist but I have given up such activities now”.

However the authorities took no chances and police, bomb disposal squad and army personnel with sniffer dogs were called in immediately for a search operation.

“We took the threat very seriously and followed standard security measures,” a senior police official said.

As such parking of vehicles inside the district court premises was disallowed on Monday, walk-through gates were installed at exit and entry points, police force on duty was doubled and security personnel in plain clothes were deployed outside the court room.

All this was done without disturbing the courts which functioned normally on Monday.

“It seems it was an attempt to cause a delay in the hearing of cases relating to the writer of the note,” a police official told Dawn.

In February, a suicide attack on a court in Quetta killed the judge and 14 others.