Mock drill for anti-terror operations in HC

The scene in the High Court was not a real terror attack but a mock drill by the ATS commandos, as the courts across the state, including the HC and Patna Civil court, have been constantly receiving bomb threats. It was aimed at creating awareness and preparedness should a situation like this arise.

Six armed ‘terrorists’ suddenly entered the Patna High Court around 10 am on Saturday, hijacked a bus and took its occupants hostage. A hand grenade was hurled at the court premises to terrorize the people, leading to fear psychosis in and around the court premises.

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) personnel perform a mock drill at the Patna High Court premises on Saturday. (Santosh Kumar /HT)

The news of the attack was shared with administration as well as Anti-Terrorism squad. (ATS). On getting information, ATS commandos immediately arrived and surrounded the HC premises. An operation was launched to rescue the hostages. During this, the ATS commandos somehow entered the hijacked bus and overpowered the terrorists. After some time, the ATS personnel caught all the hijackers without harming any hostages.

The scene in the High Court was not a real terror attack but a mock drill by the ATS commandos, as the courts across the state, including the HC and Patna Civil court, have been constantly receiving bomb threats. It was aimed at creating awareness and preparedness should a situation like this arise.

The terrorists were armed with hand grenades and assault rifles. At first, they detonated hand grenades at the main gate with the intention of spreading panic. After this, the terrorists got into a scuffle with the security personnel. Four of them took control of a bus and two kept eyes outside the campus. They parked the hijacked bus at the main gate of the court building.

Four terrorists inside the bus were taken out one by one. The terrorists then tried to escape and fired at a youth. But one of the dogs deployed on the spot attacked the terrorist and injured him. Then the injured terrorist was captured by the soldiers. The commandos took all the terrorists on their knees in a row and searched them at gunpoint.

During the mock drill, the ATS personnel along with the dog squad, bomb disposal and detection squad demonstrated the virtual terror attack. The action of safely evacuating the people present in the premises by encountering the terrorists was also shown. Trained sniffer dogs were used to identify and “attack” the mock terrorists as part of the response exercise. Chief justice Sangam Kumar Sahu and other judges also participated.

Additional director general (ADG ATS) Pankaj Darad said, “Today, we got the opportunity to conduct a mock drill in the premises of the Patna High Court. The Chief Justice granted permission for it and also participated in the exercise.”