LUCKNOW, Feb. 13 -- Bomb threats sent via emails to government mail accounts triggered a massive security response across court complexes in Lucknow, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Meerut and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of lawyers and litigants and the suspension of court proceedings.

Police said the threats were received on the official government email IDs of these courts, causing panic and prompting immediate precautionary action. All five court premises were evacuated and judicial work was temporarily halted.

In Varanasi alone, more than 3,000 lawyers and around 5,000 litigants vacated the court complex in haste. The district judge also stepped out of the campus as security teams began a comprehensiv...