The Delhi Police on Saturday conducted mock drills at three strategic locations in the city with other security agencies.
“A coordinated multi-location mock-drill exercise was held at ITO, Vasant Kunj and Dwarka on Saturday at 4 pm by the Delhi Police in which specialized agencies like NSG took part,” said Chinmoy Biswal, the spokesperson of Delhi Police.
“Mock-drills are the standard mechanism where by the efficiency and efficacy of institutional arrangements and inter-agency coordination are put to the litmus test in various scenarios. The mock drill was coordinated by Special Cell, the nodal anti-terror agency of Delhi Police,” said Biswal.
“At the old Police Headquarters (PHQ) building, ITO, the mock drill began with a decoy vehicle reaching the exit gate of old PHQ. After a brief skirmish with security, a group of decoy terrorists entered the building and held some persons on gun-point as hostage while another group fled from the scene in a getaway car,” said Biswal.
“Simultaneously, a second terror strike scenario was initiated at Ambience Mall, Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj, where an improvised explosive device (IED) was lobbed by decoy terrorists near its main entrance and thereafter, the decoy terrorists fled the scene while opening indiscriminate fire,” said Biswal.
“The third scenario was simulated at metro station, Sector-21, Dwarka where an explosion was reported near the main gate and decoy terrorists were reported to have forcibly hijacked a metro train found stationary at the platform,” said Biswal.
“At all three locations, all stakeholders local police, traffic police, PCR, SWAT and civic agencies like fire service and health department were rushed by the Central Police Control Room.
Incident Command Posts were established and defensive evacuation drill was executed,” said Biswal.
“The special forces of SWAT, Special Cell and CISF (for the metro station) formed the inner cordon and anti-terror operations, as prescribed in the drills, were carried out. Hostage rescue, secondary device check, screening and securing of suspects etc. complex operations were simulated with coordination and cooperation of all responding actors,” he said.
“As special observers, teams of NSG attended all the three scenarios and made critical evaluation of the efforts, response and proficiencies of the responding agencies which is required for constant upgradation of professional skills of a premier police force,” Biswal added.
No untoward incident or avoidable panic was noticed till the conclusion of the mock drill. Response of officers and personnel of all concerned districts, units and civic agencies were found appropriate, police said.