The security drill is taking place across nearly 300 "civil defence" districts.
New Delhi:
A mega security drill is being held across the country amid the stand-off with Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, hours after the Indian armed forces carried out the 'Operation Sindoor' in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- The security drill is underway across nearly 300 "civil defence" districts, including 100 "highly sensitive" locations like the national capital Delhi, nuclear plants, military bases, refineries and hydroelectric dams. Such a drill is the first since the 1971 war with Pakistan.
- The drills come in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, carried out by Indian armed forces, across nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir early Wednesday. Sources in the government said that seventy terrorists were killed in the strikes.
- A "civil defence" district is an area having an armed forces facility or significant economic or public infrastructure, such as an oil refinery or a nuclear plant.
- There are three categories of Civil Defence Districts. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and districts like Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Surat in Gujarat, and Tarapur in Maharashtra, where there are nuclear reactors, are among the Category 1, or high-risk targets.
- The civil defence exercise involved students, employees from government and private organisations, in addition to the police and paramilitary forces.
- The security exercises included training civilians on civil defence aspects and operationalisation of critical services like firefighting. The authorities are also assessing the efficacy of air raid warning sirens and control rooms, and the hotlines to the Air Force.
- The drill also included evacuation and "crash blackout measures" -- which are implemented during air raids by enemy planes.
- A blackout means lights will be turned down to a minimum in towns and cities so they will not be visible from an enemy aircraft. There will also be camouflaging of key sites like power plants, factories and public infrastructure.
- Following the April 22 Pahalgam attack in which 26 people were killed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a free hand to the armed forces regarding retaliation. A series of diplomatic measures has been initiated against Pakistan.
- PM Modi has been having regular meetings with officials of the defence and home ministries and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The Opposition is backing the government after an all-party meeting.
