After a suicide bomber claimed the lives of several CRPF soldiers at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, Mumbai decided to check its security conditions. Accordingly, Police conducted a counter-terror mock drill at DMart outlet in Virar, Mumbai, hours after the terror attack. However, some citizens misinterpreted the drill which went on for three long hours as a real terror attack.
The misunderstanding led to panic among the civilians in the city. Moreover, videos of the drill shot by people present in and around the mall added fuel to the fire. In the viral video of the mock drill conducted by Palghar district police along with Riot Control Police (RCP) and Quick Response Team (QRT), cops are seen donning there uniform, catching a dummy terrorist as a part of the drill.
https://twitter.com/Nikita68042188/status/1096291522742370305
https://twitter.com/dhruv7864/status/1096314035069505536
@republic @TimesNow @ZeeNews @ANI @smitaprakash Please verify this video as rumored ripe here in Mumbai area that a terrorist caught in Virar while planting bomb inside D'mart mall. Whether it's a mock drill or real please verify it. pic.twitter.com/HEK0mFhsqK
— Arvind Vishwakarma 🇮🇳 (@ArvindVishwak10) February 15, 2019
Terrorist caught near Mumbai.
Very impressive.
It was anti-terrorist mock drill conducted on Thursday evening by Palghar District Police along with Riot control Police n Quick Response team.
😅😅😅 pic.twitter.com/52NvIqe9Yt— Indur Chhugani (@IndurChhugani) February 15, 2019
The videos spread on social media like wildfire with misleading messages of a terror attack in the city. Some shared the video saying that the police had caught a terrorist in the mall while planting a bomb. Few others wrote that police held some terrorists in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area of Pune.
The video of the mock drill circulated on Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media sites. It triggered horror among Mumbaikars, in Pune and several other parts of Maharashtra.
Keeping the ongoing hullabaloo in the country because of the recent attack in consideration, we hope that common people do not share unauthenticated news that causes panic in the nation.