Defence News
Anti-Terror Drill: Sagar Kavach betters May performance, achieves 75% success
FOR THE first time since the Sagar Kavach security exercises were initiated by the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) to assess preparedness of maritime policing, teams of Customs and port officials were deployed, apart from men from the coastal police, while carrying out the drills. Officials said it aimed at widening the ambit of agencies involved in securing the coastline. Meanwhile, much to the satisfaction of the ICG, despite intensifying its mock bid to “infiltrate” the city via the sea, 31 of the 41 attempts carried out by “dummy terrorists” were foiled by the maritime police. This is in contrast to its performance in May this year where dummy terrorists managed to sneak in during five out of six attempts. The bi-annual exercise was started to test the security preparedness in the aftermath of the November 2008 attacks. “For the past eight years, we have limited the exercise to the Navy, ICG and coastal police, but this time around, we decided to include the other stakeholders so as to rope them in for times of emergency. While involving others meant additional preparations, the exercise was still successful and it benefited the new participants who could be pressed in if need be,” said a senior official. Explaining the drill, another official said personnel from the ICG posed as terrorists (“red force”) and those from the coastal police enacted their roles as the “blue force”. The brief to the “red force” was to ferry dummy explosives and dummy arms unnoticed and land in Mumbai while dodging the police. The “blue force” attempts to foil the attempt. “In May, we had a disappointing performance. This time, the blue team managed to have over 75 per cent success ratio,” added the official. In November 2016, too, when the security preparedness exercise was carried out a week before the 26/11 anniversary, “terrorists” had managed to sneak in at five landing points. “This November, we have performed better and we hope to repeat the same in the future exercises,” added the official.
