States And Union Territories Conducting Mock Security Drills On May 7 | Read

Following directions from the Centre, states and Union Territories are preparing for a civil defence security drill tomorrow. While the Centre's instructions to the states' chief secretaries do not mention the tensions with Pakistan, the timing of the order, amid heightened tensions following the Pahalgam terror attack, leaves no room for interpretation. The last such drill was conducted in the run-up to the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, in which the latter was defeated and Bangladesh was created. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs notification to the states, this drill will be held across the country's 244 Civil Defence districts. "The conduct of the exercise is planned up to the village level. This exercise aims to assess and enhance the readiness of Civil Defence mechanisms across all States and Union Territories," it says.