After taking a second look, their faces lit up and the cat was out of the bag. As part of a routine mock drill, Bangalore District Home Guards planted less intensity bombs.

Two bombs were planted on a road at the entrance of the bus stand, while the third was  planted on terrace of the building. As soon as the bombs exploded one after another, some passengers, entering the bus stand, started running helter skelter.

Senior Platoon Commander, Home Guards, Bangalore District M Mahadeva said that they conduct mock drills twice in a month at various parts of the city, to educate citizens on how to react to an emergency situation,” he added.
“A day before demo, we keep owners of the concerned buildings informed. We deliberately keep citizens in dark to study their reaction and to decide on preventive measures to be taken in such a situation. We take all precautionary steps to avoid any untoward incident while staging mock drills,” a volunteer involved in the drill said.

Home Guards officials received a call around 2.45 pm that a bomb had been planted in the bus stand.Upparpet police and Fire and Emergency Services officials were informed. A bomb detection and disposal squad was sent to the spot. Just minutes before they could reach the spot, the bombs exploded one after another. Two pretended to have sustained injuries when the first bomb exploded, while four and two persons pretended to have fallen unconscious when the second and third bombs exploded.

Sharing experiences with Deccan Herald, some passengers came down heavily on the Home Guards for keeping them in dark. More than 150 officials of civil police, Home Guards and Fire and Emergency Services participated.