Friday, March 18 2005 17:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: A spate of hoax calls has become a headache for Bangalore police, and a source of concern for software firms, the garden city-turned Silicon Valley's proud landmarks.

And things do not seem to stop. Today, it was the turn of two Kendriya Vidyalayas in the city at Sanjaynagar and Jeevanbheemanagar that was named by "anonymous callers," and as in previous cases, those turned out to be hoax.

The "mischievous elements" surfaced close on the heels of Delhi police uncovering a plot by Lashkar-e-Toiba militants to target the city's software firms.

It all began with a hoax call to city office of New York Stock Exchange listed Wipro on March 9, 2005 but there was a twist in the tale. Within hours he made the call, a Wipro employee was in the net.

And the reason the 30-year-old staffer Prashant Kumar gave for the prank is that he wanted to highlight lax security in software firms and check police's alertness during testing times.

But engineers and other staffers rushing out of their workplace is not a "pleasant sight" for Bangalore, which boasts to be a global software hub.

And barely a week later on March 15, another call to police control room in early hours claiming that bombs have been planted in main offices of Wipro and NASDAQ-listed Infosys sparked another round of panic.

Work was disrupted at these two software biggies but no explosive device was found.

Senior Wipro and Infosys officials say they are in touch with their customers and employees to allay fears after the bomb scares. Infosys, in fact, has sent mailers to all its customers, reassuring them that things are normal.

And today, bomb disposal and sniffer dogs set out once again on their now-frequent outings and again they returned empty-handed.

"It has become a headache for us", a city police official commented. It's difficult for police to catch prankster who calls from public booths.