HYDERABAD : In the backdrop of a blast at Commissioner's Task Force office recently and serial blasts in country capital two days ago, any object or vehicle found unclaimed even for a few minutes is creating panic among people as well as the police.

Rajesh Ramdhani, owner of Karachi bakery in M.J. Market, smelt rat when he found a suitcase in a corner of the shop. Having heard about the red alert sounded by the police across all the cities in the country, the businessman alerted the police.

Within minutes, the Begumbazar police descended on the shop with bomb disposal teams and dog squads.

Area cordoned off

The area was cordoned off, workers were sent out and as everybody waited with bated breath, the team opened the suitcase only to find some papers inside. It is only when the suitcase owner Subhash Malhotra came to the shop that they realised their fears were unfounded.

Working as Syndicate bank manager in Karimnagar, Malhotra came to the city on some work. While buying biscuits for his children at the bakery, he kept the suitcase in a corner.

In a hurry to buy crackers, he forgot the luggage, went straight to a fireworks shop and from there to Mahatma Gandhi bus station.

The forgotten suitcase came to his mind after sitting in the bus. Malhotra hired an auto-rickshaw but was caught in a traffic jam. It took more than an hour for him to reach the shop, but by the time everybody was exhausted with the panic caused by his suitcase.

Even `more scary' was the episode at ICICI bank near the Assembly building on Monday. A person T. Venkateswarlu had an appointment with the Government Chief Whip in the Assembly. He came to the bank to withdraw money but the bank staff asked him to try at the nearby Andhra bank branch since he had that bank's ATM card.

As he was getting delayed for the scheduled meeting with the Chief Whip, Venkateswarlu went out forgetting his suitcase behind. "With the man leaving bank premises hurriedly, bank manager Vali called me up raising doubts of a suicide bomber and you can imagine how we would react to such calls," Saifabad Inspector K.V. Ramnarsimha Reddy said.

Even as the frantic police parties reached the bank and began racking up their brains how to tackle the situation, Venkateswarlu returned to take back his suitcase.

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