Odisha police launches ‘Operations Eagle Claws’

Bhubaneswar: In order to counter terror attacks, Odisha police have launched an operation called ‘Operations Eagle Claws’.

DGP KB Singh said the state police has launched ‘Operations Eagle Claws’ under which security personnel belonging to Security Technologies Unit (STU), Special Operation Group (SOG), National Security Guard (NSG) and the state police have been included.

The DGP said that as many as 24 strategic locations across the state have been identified and 8 (5 STU, 3 SOG) teams have been formed to review the security in the vulnerable places.

NSG, an elite anti-terrorism outfit, and Odisha Police jointly conducted a mock drill on tackling terror attacks at strategic locations in the capital city late night on Wednesday.

This joint exercise was conducted on the night of 11th, 12th and 13th of this month in some vital government and government establishments, confirmed DGP Singh.

On 11th night, the mock drill was conducted on the Infosys campus, on 12th it was held in the premises of Hotel May Fair and on 13th the drill was conducted in the Secretariat premises.

The senior officers of NSG held two rounds of meeting with the DGP in his camp office at Bhubaneswar and finalised the schedule of this joint exercise. There is absolutely no connection of this joint exercise with the Terrorist attack on the Amarnath pilgrims, clarified the DGP.

Singh also stated that so far there is no threat of terrorist attack on any part of our state. But it is routine preparedness for any unfortunate incident in future. The people of the state must not take it otherwise or panicky on this joint exercise.

In order to counter terrorists in the country, NSG normally undertakes such type of exercise in different parts of the country as per the direction of Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India.

This exercise of NSG is just a part of this programme. This exercise of NSG has been conducted on behalf of NSG Hyderabad Hub in which as many as 10 senior officers of NSG and more than 100 commandos were engaged.

This joint exercise has been named as Counter Terrorist City Exercise. As per the direction of DGP K.B.Singh, senior officers of the state police like Director Intelligence Sunil Roy, CP Y.B.Khurania, IGP (Operation) R.P.Koche, DCP Bhubaneswar Satyabrata Bhoi and Commandant SOG Anup Krishna closely monitored this exercise.

Such kind of joint exercise is not new to the state. It was conducted earlier at Puri and Chandipur also is the same way.

This kind of joint exercise will definitely go a long way in strengthening our state force in a very big way, added Singh.