JOIN USSaturday night 'terror drama' a security drill, say police
Think twice before you believe a breaking news as it might turn out be hoax or a mountain made out of a molehill.
Bangaloreans on Sunday morning woke up to a section of the electronic media blaring out about four terrorists on the run in the City and police unable to trace them even after an all-night operation. Well, the senior City police officials have claimed that the whole exercise was a security drill.
The media reports had it that the police received specific intelligence inputs from the Central IB (intelligence bureau) that the terrorists had entered the City and were planning to attack the Taj group of hotels.
They claimed that the IB had even tipped that the terrorists were travelling in a Nano car with registration number GJ 05 AC 15. Acting on the details, the police conducted all-night checks, but failed to trace the car.
‘No specific intel’
However, Home Minister K J George, while speaking to Deccan Herald, had denied that they recieved, “any specific intelligence inputs from the Central agencies on Saturday night. The checks were routine.” He reiterated this statement on Sunday morning.
Gopal Hosur, Chief of the State intelligence, also confirmed that there were no such inputs. However, a junior ranking official who was involved in the night-long nakabandi, had a different story to tell. He said there was a general alert regarding terrorist activities in the State on Saturday.
He said the City police got into a tizzy after the management of Taj Vivanta Hotel on M G Road reported about a black Nano car moving around the hotel suspiciously. However, the Taj Vivanta authorities have denied the claims.
The larger picture of Saturday night's ‘terror drama’, senior police officials claim, was not known to even those officers on the nakabandi and that triggered a media frenzy as the inputs that officers got were leaked to the media channels.
Kamal Pant, Additional Commissioner (Law and Order), said that the entire exercise was a mock security drill. The officer termed it a regular exercise done many times in the past too, to reassess their strengths and the chinks in their response to such an eventuality.
He said that in the light of a general security alert from the Centre, the City police went for a security drill and even the officers put on the job did not know about it.
Pant dismissed the presence of terrorists or a Nano car as mere speculations in the media.