PESHAWAR: The law-enforcement agencies on Friday evening conducted a mock security exercise in the jurisdiction of the West Cantonment police station for checking their response time in case of a terrorist attack.

However, the exercise caused panic among road users, who ran helter-skelter.

Peshawar SSP (operations) Dr Mian Saeed told Dawn that the exercise was meant to check the response time.

“It was a mock exercise that proved to be very fruitful in achieving the goal. It’s basic purpose was to identify lacunas and improve timing and performance of law-enforcement agencies,” he said.

However, it was witnessed that as the police cordoned off roads for the exercise, the people began running in panic assuming that terrorists or suicide bomber might have entered the area.

As police cordoned off roads, people ran helter-skelter assuming terrorists were around

Women and children were also the worst victims of the situation as they were seen shocked and terrified.

Several shopping markets are situated in the jurisdiction of the West Cantonment police station, especially in Saddar Road, Arbab Road, Mall Road and Sher Shah Suri Road areas.

Shopkeepers were seen hurriedly pulling down shutters panicking shoppers.

The vehicular traffic was stopped near a busy intersection along Darvesh Mosque towards Stadium Chowk and diverted towards Saddar Bazaar at a U-turn near State Life Building. The entire traffic system was seen clogged within few minutes and there was no official version as to what had actually happened.

The general public did not know as to what had actually happened.

However, many of them standing along the Sher Shah Soori Road said they had seen quick movement of law-enforcement personnel but didn’t hear gunshots.

“In the past whenever there’s a bomb blast or an installation came under attack, the police used to fire gunshots excessively but this time around, nothing of this kind was witnessed,” a senior citizen said.

To hoodwink the people, some policemen even told people that they had arrested some suspects.

“It was a joint rehearsal of security forces and police on the premises of the West Cantonment police station in order to avert any possible attack,” said the policemen outside the police station when asked.

The ambulances of different charity organisations and Rescue Services 1122 remained on the roads but no police officer briefed journalists about the activity.

“I have come from Michini Gate police station and got the message to divert the traffic,” a police official told Dawn.

He said pedestrians were also not allowed to go towards the West Cantonment police station.

Another traffic police sergeant said the messages of a possible threat to sensitive installations had been received and that it was the compulsion of the police to check its security capability.

SUSPECTED MILITANTS ARRESTED: Two suspected militants were arrested in the Nauthia area, while they were distributing pamphlets of Islamic State (IS), official sources said.

They said the pamphlets were in Pashto and Persian languages. The sources said the suspects were identified as Ghulam Mohammad and Lal Mohammad of Shero Jhangi locality on the outskirts of Peshawar.

They said the two were shifted by the counter-terrorism department personnel to an unidentified place for further interrogation.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2015

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