On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Chennai city was the place where an integrated exercise on response to a Mumbai like terrorist incrusion from the sea was staged. The objective was to test the response. Marine Commandoes played "terrorists" and landed into chennai through the sea. The Chennai City Police, the Coastal Security Force of TN, the CISF reacted and apprehended the "terrorists". Only the top echelons knew that this was an exercise and the rest reacted as if it was a real attack.

Key points of the exercise:
1. It took 5 hours to react from the first "intelligence inputs".
2. The coordination was in place but it is reported that there was some overlaps.
3. One "terrorists" managed to escape and was captured by civilians later
4. Local fishermen were employed by security forces to detect unusual landings
5. CISF came up below average, some of them were found to be unfit ( could not climb ropes)
6. Chain of command was functioning.
7. The police did not spare anyone and stopped and searched everyone including the collector of Chennai's car when she was in it.
8. Barricades were put up across the coast line and there were units despatched to all key "targets" including star hotels.
9. Not clear if the exercise involved Kalpakkam area
10. Police verdict - It worked well, there are gaps and we will get better next time.

This is an important event and needs to be tracked and all details captured here. It is good to see that action is being taken by the Home Ministry. This is the first time such an exercise in scale and scope has been done. Hopefully there is a periodic exercise undertaken in every major metro. It is good that they used a highly trained force like Marine Commandoes to be the agressors. It shows that the government is taking things seriously.

Here is a report on the operation as it appeared in TOI. Any other details, please post in this thread. As usual the title is negative.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citi ... 755772.cms

Hawthorne effect: Subject behaves differently, when he knows he is under study.

The chennai police 'knew' that there is an exercise in place, in spite of denials to the contrary. Hence this eagerness to prove themselves. When god forbid an attack takes place for real, there will be shining examples of both steadfastness as well as failure (ASI Omble, who held Kasab's AK-47 and allowing his comrades to capture him alive; Compare this with most of the pandus at VT station who melted away).
But I will call this a commendable job on the part of all involved. The LET sea wing is indeed planning a series of follow up attacks to Mumbai in B'lore / Chennai / Cochin (INS Viraat).

But you have to give it to the Pakis to innovate new methods to indulge in terror.

Kargil (This was the Jihadi Pak Fauj not the Pakjabi terror boys)
9-11
Mumbai 7-11, London 7-7,
Mumbai 26-11.

What next?

PS: One still remembers the Pakjabi controller in 26-11 dictating to his semi-literate terrorist "This is just the trailer, the whole movie is yet to come", and the idiot terrorist, saying "Wait, let me write this down"
Gawd already ! how difficult could this line be?

What a dumbass! Now the pakis have added - Making threatening calls 101 - to the curriculum at all madarsas.

Mr p_saggu

define PakJabi

I would like you to clarify because it falls to close to Punjabi or Panjabi.

If you have feel you made a mistake you can edit your post to say Pakistani which I have no issues with.
but the jabi is too close to my Punjab which is I am very proud of.

{Please spend some time browsing the forum before jumping to conclusions and falling into Poo with your massive ego. There is a lower age limit for browsing the internet - pls check into it. Thank you.

Folks, I am deleting all wasted bandwidth trying to respond to this guy - he's just trying to create a bar brawl and should do it elsewhere. }

Looks like the "terrorists entering by sea" is taken as the biggest challenge and Home Ministry taking much stricter steps to watch the sea closely.

Mean while from the Kerala Police web site - Circular about Coastal security
സർക്കുലർ നം: 18/2009. വിഷയം: കടലോര ജാഗ്രതാ സമിതി - രൂപികരണം - മാർഗ്ഗ നിർദ്ദേശ രേഖ
http://www.keralapolice.org/newsite/pdfs/circular/Cir_No.18-09.pdf

Can this thread be merged with the Police Reforms thread in the Tech. & Econ. Forum?

Some IB officers were arrested(actually twice) too in this operation and released later after establishing their identity.....Hindu ran a story on this...don't know if thats good(police action ) or bad(IB agents caught )

Sachin,
Translation please......

SagguJi,

I do not know if the so called pandus at VT melted away. Actually there were camera footages of few constables trying to make a fight of it with one .303 and which I believe jammed. The terrorists could have easily walked towards them and killed them. They stood there with that Junk called weapon trying to fight back is proof enough of their courage. They probably need good weapons , good pay and opportunities for promotions

Sachin,

I dont start threads usually. It is very rare. The only reason, I thought that this merits a thread of its own, is that this is the first anti-terror exercise that has taken place with this scale and scope post Mumbai carnage.

Just like we look at the exercises that armed forces conduct to glean some insights, I thought, if we can collect some information on this exercise, it may be worth the effort. By merging it into a general thread on police reform, it may lose that focus.

However sir, I leave it to your judgement. If there is not much information available on this exercise in the next few days, this thread can even be deleted.

Thanks

Dear rkirankr,

There was a video posted in rediff. Which was cctv footage of CST. In that 3 to 5 policemen were fighting with or without any weapons but the same footage started with a show. Where a lot of policemen running away with there weapons like pistels, .303 and carbines etc even before terrorist came in the view. This was not aired but the part 2 how couple of policeman fighted it out. The system may have awarded them but those who run away must be paraded before media. Like army where paltan ki izzat sabse pahle.

i remember few days ago Andhra police surrounded and searched a whole train , don’t know It was a exercise or was some real threat .

does someone has link on that

What explained this was that there was a credible information that the terrorists were planning to infiltrate under the guise of police officers.

sachin saab, I think this thread should stay as stand alone.

While this is a great initiative, we also need the following information to analyse effectiveness of our response.

1. Did we use the renamed STF in these operations
2. How was the security apparatus staffed i.e., who staffed the following layers
a. Periphery
b. Assault team
c. Cover teams backing up the assault team
3. Who was commanding the whole operation?
4. How did we do in logistics?

I guess as long as it is an all police force(incl NSG) involved in operation it is fine, we might have some commissioner running the ops. The problem comes in when the Army is also involved in the ops.

Why we shouldn't think from following perspective:

If the above story is true to its details, then I think, Marcos really needed to be trained better if they really get caught so early by local police.

It is failure on the part of the force whose one of important task is infiltrate behind enemy lines without being detected.

Hope some of you agree with me.

Serioulsy, if terrorists are smart enough to actually dress like fisherfolk, and come ashore in boats that at least LOOK like usual fishing vessels, and carry their AKs and RPGs and cellphones (sorry, Pakis carry those up their musharrafs as we have seen) and Cargo Pants and designer t-shirts, then I don't see how the Police will know inside 5 hours.

Also, how one "terrorist" was conveniently caught by "civilians" (Did the poor guy get beaten up?)

India has so far been HIGHLY fortunate because the terrorists have huge egos and are total microbrains. Allah spare us if the Pakis ever get smart and dedicated enough.

(For example, this is why the LTTE was so successful. They actually trained and used intel.)

No mention in mainstream newspapers

Raja Ram Sir,

Yours truly was traveling from Adayar to Aynavaram. I encountered barricades in Nungambakkam / Kelly's / Chetpet. Nungambakkam Barricade was most severe and a lil traffic situation was created (NOT BAD) by Chennai standards night 10:30 it was not expected. It was interesting to see Massive police presence at Taj Nungambakkam.

At Numgambakkam (in front of Ishpani Center) I have to say, police was particularly thorough. GOtta say I was impressed and as I was not aware why something like this is happening, I went home and switched on the Tele and saw every conceivable news channel but nothing came on..... guess media was practicing restrain too...

One thing that i found particularly interesting is the next day report by TOI. If the operation was going on all night, how could TOI print it on front page the next morning. What time does the print really start? During IPL days I remember TOI would carry news of only the first innings of the matches starting at 8PM.

Last edit of the paper is around 11.30 pm, and that too only for breaking stories. The templates creation and printing takes around 2-3 hrs, and they need to dispatch these to the distribution areas to reach by 4.30-5 am. They need to account for a 3-4 hr travel time, which means that the first copies need to be proofread and sent out by 1.30 am.

If the news came in around 11 pm, they might have held the finals till 12 am at latest. From what u say, it appears that the operation was over by then, and it would be extremely likely that the press had got the news. Most of them are well in the know, and keep it under wraps till they get confirmation.

whilst we should review events, i don't support that we do detailed analysis on a public forum. lets not make the scum sucker's jobs any easier.

This thread would be an ideal test case to see the capabilities of the password-controlled GDF.

This is exactly I feel too. If TOI knew then I am sure Hindu knew it too. Interesting, Hindu didn't carry the news at all....

I do support him. We can only discuss this matter in general. But we must not analyze it in detail as follows. It will only make those pigs job easier.

I think we must stop this thread, because you know it is hard to prevent jingoism. Some may get over curious and find something interesting and spill it here. Like we have gurus in BRF, unfortunately some bugs too are there in Piggystan who can make out the story from the hint.

Regret the probing questions. Better this thread is locked up.

Hate to say yaar/dost/mitra/my friends. The best urban police departments in India are the Delhi and TN forces, with AP coming a close second. Of the three while training and procedure is different but of comparable quality, the TN police is by far the best equipped and v. lethal. More importantly the all three forces have now acquired a political backing that does not change with party control. That is the politicians are mature enough not mess around with postings and the such like. The TN police have kept a stranglehold on the underworld, as well as naxalites and are feared for their ruthlessness. The TN Police Sp.Sec.Group is well equipped and regularly trains with the CRPF. No force is perfect. But in providing security and controlling pre-event security (like during sporting events or before festive occasions) the TN police has few equals. Security tends to be v.thorough and the police (men and women) aren't to be messed with.

^^^ I totally agree with you. The very intention of having an exercise speaks about their readiness to review their strengths and eliminate weaknesses

The intention is not to dig out details that should not be public knowledge. Just to do what we normally do when we look at the several exercises that are conducted by the Army to try and gauge capabilities or intent. Nothing more, nothing less.

It is now emerging that such exercises have been conducted through out the Tamil Nadu coast as well. There has been some coverage in the local vernacular TV channels. A brief mention was made in the Sun News bullitein. The Deccan Chronicle carried a news item on Operation Barricade.

With regards to the operation, there was no mobilization of armed forces other than the Marcos. No mention of the coast guard in action. It is however reported that the unit in Chennai and the TN Police Commandos were mobilized and kept on high reaction mode.

TN Police Commandos is a well trained unit and has been set up along the lines of the NSG. It was the brain child of Jaya and Dr. Vijayakumar (one time DG of NSG and the man who hunted down and killed Veerappan). It also has the highest number of trained woman commandos too. The elite amongst them are sent to NSG as well for advanced training.

Coming back to the exercise, the broad contours that I have been able to piece together are as follows:

1. Specific Intelligence was provided about sea-borne attacks along the coast including Chennai
2. There was a pre-established coordination and protocol plan that was activated. The lesson seems to be that the plan activation took 5 hours to get operational. they want to reduce that.
3. The many departments and security forces were coordinated and procedures tested for securing multiple targets while at the same time intercepting and forestalling the said attacks.
4. While there is no public evidence, it is likely that certain communication systems, terror assessment systems were tested.

While the threat from sea is now recognised, I hope that the threat from air is also taken up and due consideration is given to such threats. An attack using Micro light is possible. The LTTE had attacked colombo airport using such techniques. Kalpakkam is an obvious targets. Still trying to find published news on this. Seems to have been kept deliberately low key with just enough publicity to send a message across - India is not going to be found wanting in response if it is provoked again.

News reports on Op Barricade...
http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/10/stories ... 080800.htm


News clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aas_Agj9hgk