Even before sunrays cleared the mist over the ocean, a group of six fully-armed terrorists forced their way on to a merchant ship about 2.5 nautical miles north of Visakhapatnam coast and took the crew hostage here on Wednesday morning.

As information reached the district administration, a special party, comprising a RDO-rank officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy, and a psychologist boarded the ship to negotiate with the terrorists.

The terrorists demanded Rs. 500 crore in cash, release of two terrorists of their group serving sentence in Tihar Jail, and a fuelled aircraft for escape.

The negotiations failed.

In the post noon session, Marine Commandos and Special Boarding Party from the Navy and personnel from the Coast Guard boarded the ship and neutralised the terrorists.

Well there is nothing to panic, for it is not an actual happening.

It was a mock drill organised by the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Civil and Marine police.

Ever since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, such drills titled ‘Hamla’ are being organised on a regular basis across the coastal cities in the country. “It is a joint exercise, and different themes are taken into consideration in every exercise. It is basically to check our preparedness and reaction time. Even the role of terrorists is played by our own men,” said Mr. Ravi Kumar Murthy.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Ravi Kumar said that the two-day exercise was being organised along the coast from Puducherry to Itchapuram, covering three states and a Union Territory. Every aspect of a terror attack is covered in the exercise, such as intelligence gathering, counter intelligence, negotiations, deployment, counter-attack, and neutralisation. “The terrorist group is called Red Force and the security group Green Force,” said Mr. Ravi Kumar.

This is the 12{+t}{+h}edition of Hamla in Visakhapatnam.

Simulated exercise called ‘Hamla’ tests the preparedness of the Navy, the Coast Guard,

and Civil and Marine police