BENGALURU: The Karnataka police has bagged the first prize in the fifth National Joint Counter (NJC) Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exercise - Agnishaman-V, which was conducted by the National Security Guard (NSG) between March 14 and 23 in Haryana.
The Counter IED team of the Internal Security Division (ISD) of the Karnataka police participated in the national-level exercise as a team for the first time. In all, 12 states participated in the competition, which was conducted in seven categories, including a written exam, cognitive test, K9 (dog) validation exercise.
The exercises included Dhamaka I on road opening exercises in Left-Wing Extremism-afflicted regions, Dhamaka II on neutralising IEDs in rural scenarios, Dhamaka III on neutralising IEDs in nuclear installations, Dhamaka IV on neutralising IEDs at airports, railway stations and bus stands.
The Karnataka team stood first in all the seven categories. “It is a matter of great pride and honour that Karnataka ISD team has bagged the first prize in a national-level event. It shows the level of their training, competence and expertise in the highly specialised field of IEDs.
This is the first time that our team participated in the contest,” Director General & Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) Praveen Sood told TNIE. The police chief has rewarded the 22 member-contingent for outstanding performance in Agnishaman-V. The IED team belongs to the Centre for Counter Terrorism, ISD, which is directly trained by a serving senior Army officer.