PARADIP: Marine police with the help of fisheries personnel nabbed 14 ‘terrorists’, for sneaking into Single Mooring Point system of Paradip Harbour on Tuesday. The mock exercise was enacted on the second day of Operation Hamla-2, being jointly conducted by Odisha and West Bengal. The arrested men were among the 20 caught across the State during the exercise, designed to check the terror-preparedness. The teams involved themselves in a mock attack and counter-attack practice. They were divided into two groups, the Blue Force and the Red Force.
The Blue Force, which constituted the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, Marine police and fisheries personnel confronted the Red Force whose men faked as terrorists during the joint exercise.
Following the Mumbai terror strikes in 2008, Odisha police have regularly been testing their preparedness to fight terrorism. This is the fifth such exercise on the Odisha coast.
In another mock drill, four armed terrorists hijacked a merchant vessel mv Jagnarayan after entering the anchorage area of Paradip Port via sea route with sea worthy vessel. The terrorists then took 10 crew members hostage and managed to take away the hijacked ship to the deep sea. This was followed by the rescue exercise by coastal security agencies, including Paradip Port Trust security personnel, but they failed to rescue the 10 crew members. Soon after the Coast Guard deployed its vessel ‘Razia Sultan’ and INS Chilika to chase the hijacked ship and after a fight they managed to rescue the ship and its crew members.
Deputy Inspector-General, Indian Coast Guard KPR Raghu Vamshee said, “Though we cannot reveal the results of the ‘Operation Hamla’ now, most of the ‘terrorists’ were nabbed by the marine police and other agencies,” he
added.