The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Anti-sabotage teams on a specific mission

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Saturday, Sep 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Anti-sabotage teams on a specific mission

The work of Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad involves a lot of planning, writes
R. Rajaram

A few days back the city police personnel along with anti-sabotage teams and sniffer dogs landed up in a couple of educational institutions and the Corporation office here. Armed with bomb detection equipment, the men in khakhi were on a specific mission in these places.

Their assignment, however, was not to detect and defuse any explosive substances but sensitise the educational authorities, teachers, student community and the civic body staff on the ways to act and respond whenever they received a bomb threat call.

The awareness programme was organised in Fort, Golden Rock and Cantonment Ranges the same day with the law enforcers explaining in detail to the teachers, students and Corporation officials the measures that needed to be followed the moment they received a bomb threat call.

One key aspect which the law enforcers emphasised to the teachers and students was not to get panicky immediately on receipt of information of a threat call as this could lead to a stampede like situation creating more problems.

Insisting on installation of a caller ID, the law enforcers advised that the moment a threat call was received, the receiver of the call should try to prolong the conversation with the anonymous caller as this would enable in knowing various aspects such as the threat caller’s slang, accent, background noise, etc., all of which could provide some clue later.

Alerting the police control room or the nearby police station immediately, desisting from touching or disturbing any “foreign” material kept in the building premises, evacuation of people to safer places or open areas nearby without running and keeping the windows and doors opened were some of the key measures which the law enforcers advised to the students and officials.

Personnel of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) gave an overview of the ways they actually carry out the bomb detection operation besides highlighting about the types of explosives, various kinds of bomb detection equipment to detect different types of explosives. They conducted a mock exercise using sniffer dogs.

Every time the BDDS gets an alert about a call of bomb threat anywhere, we treat it as a “live” call, say those attached with the squad adding that their work involved lot of planning and a well-coordinated action. The awareness programmes were conducted on the instruction of the top brass, says a senior police officer who conducted one of the exercise. Law enforcers say such kind of sensitisation programmes would be conducted at regular intervals hereafter by selecting a particular school or a college or a government office to create more awareness among teachers, students and office goers.

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