BENGALURU: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) carried out an exhaustive mock drill demonstrating the removal of an explosive placed in an unattended bag at Terminal 2 of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Saturday evening. The nearly 50-minute exercise was watched live virtually by Home Minister Amit Shah from the CISF office in New Delhi. The drill began around 5.45 pm.
“Though drills have been carried out in the past, this is the first time such an elaborate one was done with a Remote-Controlled Containment Vehicle used to remove the explosives. All the steps involved in an actual threat situation were emulated,” said airport sources. Sophisticated gadgets used world over to manage threats and hi-tech equipments have been deployed.
Around 30 CISF personnel, their canine squad, fire department personnel and an ambulance too were used to facilitate the process.
The drill involved a large backpack placed at the entrance of T2. “A few passengers around were asked to move away from the spot and the area was cordoned off with barricades,” said an eyewitness.
The Bomb Disposal Squad rushed to the spot and defused it. It was later placed in the containment vehicle and removed from the spot safely. It has been reliably learnt that the drill had been undertaken within a short period on the instructions of Shah.