Authorities across India geared up to hold the widest set of civil defence drills in the country in nearly half a century on Wednesday as New Delhi firmed up its response to Islamabad in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
Officials selected schools, airports, malls, residential buildings and busy public spots to conduct the decentralised drills that will focus on air raid warning sirens, rescue of people, communication systems and training civilians to respond in the event of an attack. The drill will be held across the 244 civil defence districts in the country.
In Delhi, the drill is expected to begin at 4pm with air raid sirens going off at 55 designated locations across the Capital, including Khan Market, Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport, the Saket district court complex and Lajpat Nagar central market. A second round of the drill involving possible power outages is also being planned around 7pm but no final decision has been taken, said officials.
“Delhi is fully prepared for the mock drills. The people of Delhi and the government are with the country, and we are following everything directed by the central government,” chief minister Rekha Gupta said.
Other states released staggered schedules for the drills, the largest such exercise to be held since 1971, when India defeated Pakistan in a war that led to the creation of Bangladesh. In Chandigarh, officials said sirens will go off around 7.30pm, followed by a 10-minute power blackout. In Mumbai, sirens are scheduled to blare at 4pm, followed by drills, including how to respond during a war-like situation. In Ahmedabad, the drill is likely to begin at 7.30pm and continue until 8.30pm, said a government press release. And in Mizoram, the drill, including a blackout, might start at 6.30pm.
During a meeting chaired by Union home secretary Govind Mohan along with top officials of the National Disaster Response Force and Civil Defence on Tuesday, all chief secretaries of states and administrators of Union territories were instructed to identify the spots, execute an evacuation plan, record the timings, identify the gaps in rescue operation, and submit a report to the Union home ministry. Officials said the drill was an assessment of the response capability in case of an emergency.
“The drill across 244 civil defence districts has been decentralised and district magistrates of each district have been instructed to identify vulnerable places in their areas and conduct the rescue drill,” said an official aware of discussions.
The official said air raid warning sirens at different places across the country were largely in military installations and government buildings. “The first task is to check if the sirens are working. Then the next is to check the communication channels with the civil administration. There should be a hotline and a control room that is functional. And the third involves the rescue of people from vulnerable locations,” said the person cited above.
“The rescue will be from the spot to the hospital or to a safe place. Every small detail such as the route to be taken and the spot will be identified,” the person added.
The preparations came a day after the Centre on Monday announced that it will conduct civil defence preparedness drills, including testing air raid warning sirens, training on civil defence protocols and crash blackout measures.
The government also issued videos that instructed students on evacuation procedures in schools, asked people to keep emergency kits in homes, and the right response to air raid sirens and blackout alarms. “India’s safety doesn’t begin at the border, it begins with you,” said one of the videos posted by the National Disaster Management Authority.
According to data accessed by HT, there are currently 573,793 home guards in the country. The exercise assumed importance against the backdrop of simmering tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, the worst strike on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.
The border districts in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Rajasthan, as well as those having strategic and critical infrastructure such as power grids, defence and space establishments, ports, refineries, communication networks, are more vulnerable and require special attention during the exercise, said officials. The civil defence districts are divided across three categories with nuclear and power installations and major cities in the first category.
Officials involved in the drill planning process in Delhi told HT that the exercise will not disrupt daily life. “Schools are open, markets, banks and all other services as usual will remain open as usual. The public transport system in the city will run as usual. People should not panic or feel confused,” said an official.
A second official said there will be no disruption to flyers due to the drill at T-3. “We don’t want to disrupt flight operations. That is why we will be evacuating people from the arrival zone only, we will largely evacuate shopkeepers from inside without disturbing the passengers,” said the second official, not willing to be identified.
The National Disaster Management Authority will have 200 teams of 30 volunteers each, headed by a supervisor. Teams will cover at least 10 societies or blocks and conduct a thorough evacuation plan after a mock air raid. The volunteers will also make 50 distress calls to 112 and perform the drill at different locations. Residents will be advised to switch off lights and close curtains when the sirens are sounded.
“It is up to the district magistrate to execute the local evacuation plan at places near the border. The DMs in such places will set up a communication channel with residents of such border places to bring them all in place in the event of a disaster. The residents could then be given shelter in a trench or a safe location, that the district magistrates along with local police have identified in their village,” said athird added.
Civil defence gained significance primarily because of Chinese aggression in November 1962, and the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965 – in both cases, several cities were subjected to enemy air attacks. By 1971, when Pakistan again attacked India, the civil defence set-up was considerably equipped.
Last week, a group of heavily armed terrorists emerged from the woods and targeted tourists on the Baisaran grassland near Pahalgam. Twenty-six people, 25 of them tourists and 24, Hindu were killed in the attack that was reminiscent of the heyday of terrorism in the 1990s and 2000s and the worst to rock the country since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba’s proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF), claimed responsibility for the attack that coincided with US vice president JD Vance’s visit to India. New Delhi has since identified three Pakistani terrorists and tracked their digital footprints to underline Islamabad’s role in the attack.
With inputs from Neeraj Chauhan