A two-day coastal security exercise christened ‘Sagar Kavach’ commenced in the coastal districts in the central zone on Tuesday to assess the level of preparedness and alertness of the stakeholders involved in coastal security to thwart intrusion of terrorists from sea and the ways to act in a coordinated manner while dealing with such extreme crisis situation.
Check posts installed at the coastal areas in Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts were put on alert as part of the security exercise in which personnel of the Coastal Security Group, local police, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, State Fisheries Department, Port authorities and other stakeholders were involved.
Additional police strength were deployed in the coastal areas in Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayildathurai districts falling under the central zone for the exercise during which an alert was sounded to the fishermen to inform the security personnel about suspicious movement of strangers on land and at sea. Patrolling was carried out in the sea to look out for suspicious elements, said Coastal Security Group sources.
During the mock security drill, personnel of the Nagapattinam Coastal Security Group acting on information nabbed 12 “intruders” who travelled on boats while they were heading towards an oil jetty, Velankanni and Karaikal. Eight among the “intruders” on board a boat were “intercepted” about 10 nautical miles off Nagore coast. A few dummy explosives were confiscated from them, said the sources.
The whole objective behind the exercise was to thwart possible infiltration of terrorists from sea in a coordinated manner by the stakeholders involved in coastal security and to assess their level of preparedness and alertness to act in extreme emergency situation, the sources added.
