Live grenade near Manipur Raj Bhavan sparks panic

A live grenade lying at the entrance to a women's college in Manipur 's capital city of Imphal , barely 100m from Raj Bhavan , sparked panic and protests by students on Monday amid growing insecurity over extortion threats received by several educational institutes in the state and a profusion of bomb hoaxes targeting airlines and hotels elsewhere.

GP Women's College , also a short walk from CM's residence, was aflutter with conspiracy theories by the time a bomb squad arrived to defuse the grenade. A note with a cryptic message added to the confusion. "Down with the fascist education system; honour the rights of proletarian students' free education movement," an official quoted it as saying.