LUCKNOW, Feb. 16 -- Heightened security, intensive searches and deployment of anti-sabotage teams across court complexes was witnessed on court premises after they received bomb threat emails, early on Monday morning, in at least 18 districts of the state.

According to police sources, the emails were sent in the early hours, warning of explosions on district court premises. Court authorities immediately alerted local police and senior administrative officials, following which security drills were activated before the start of regular proceedings.

Among the districts that received the threats were Lucknow, Ayodhya, Moradabad, Azamgarh, Meerut, Amroha and Varanasi, along with several others, officials said.

"Bomb disposal squads, dog squ...