AMRITSAR — Security forces across Punjab remained on heightened alert on Saturday as investigators worked through the night to trace the origin of bomb threats directed at five prominent Hindu temples in the state, according to senior police officials. The threats, which emerged Friday, prompted immediate deployment of additional personnel at the targeted sites and triggered coordination between local police, the Punjab Anti-Terrorism Squad, and central intelligence agencies.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar, confirmed that forensic teams had collected physical evidence from the letters and were working to identify suspects through CCTV footage and phone record analysis. Officials said they were treating the threats with the utmost seriousness given the region's history of sectarian tensions, and were not ruling out links to extremist networks operating across state lines or from abroad.

Temple administrators in Amritsar and the surrounding districts were briefed by security officials on Saturday morning and urged to cooperate with enhanced screening procedures. Devotees arriving at the sites reported visible police presence, including armed guards at entry points and bomb disposal units stationed nearby. Several temple trusts issued statements calling for calm and urging the public to continue their daily observances without fear.

The development comes at a sensitive time in Punjab, where authorities have been monitoring a resurgence of radical messaging on encrypted social media platforms. National Security Advisor-level officials in New Delhi have been informed of the situation, and the Ministry of Home Affairs is understood to have requested hourly situation reports from the state government, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Opposition parties in Punjab called on the state government to provide a full public accounting of the threat and its handling, with Congress and Aam Aadmi Party legislators demanding an emergency session briefing. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, speaking briefly to reporters, pledged that those responsible would be apprehended swiftly and that the safety of all religious communities in Punjab remained his government's paramount concern.