Coast Guard conducts security exercise

Following the Dhaka Terror attack, the regional headquarters (North-east) of Indian Coast Guard (ICG) conducted a security exercise on the West Bengal coast. The Coast Guard confirmed the importance of such exercise describing the prevailing security set-up in neighbourhood.

The exercise which started on Thursday will conclude on Friday and is supervised by many observers including the defence experts. “Such exercises form the backbone of coastal security setup. The cohesive efforts by all stakeholders during such mock drills help to find and plug loopholes in the coastal security mechanism,” Inspector Gen KR Nautiyal, Coast Guard Commander said.

Looking at the post 26/11 scenario, where terrorists sneaked into the country through sea route, the coastal security has been the centre of attention. ICG is responsible for ensuring the coastal area in territorial waters and Director General ICG has been given the responsibility to co-ordinate with centre as well as the state governments.

The exercise is aimed at checking the effectiveness of security arrangements. Air surveillance and deep sea patrolling by coast guards and Indian Navy, air cushion vehicles and boats surveillance were done in front of experts. Marine police, CISF, Customs, Port and forest department officials were also present there in the exercise.

The Coast Guard has intercepted four people with illegal satellite phones from the Odisha shore a few days ago. The accused were using a satellite phone, very similar to the ones that were used by the attackers of 26/11. In Thursday’s exercise, the procedure of capturing the telephonic wave was also discussed.