Click to play videoNew Delhi: No casualties were reported from the Greater Kailash-I (GK-I) Market of the Capital when two bombs went off there in quick succession on Saturday.
Nearly 700 people escaped unscathed, thanks to a drill conducted by the Delhi Police which trained shop owners how to handle a blast situation.
And the lesson was well learnt.
“We were standing in front of a building when we heard a blast and saw shattered glass windows. We immediately decided to go to my office where the public addressal system is. I asked people to rush to the centre park,” Rajeev Sharda, a shop owner in GK-I, said.
“Within five minutes of the announcement, another bomb went off. But because of the announcement nobody was around the blast spot,” he added.
Seconds after the first blast at 1829 Hrs IST, shop owners downed their shutters and asked all the shoppers to gather in the park at the centre of the market, as instructed by the police during the simulation exercise.
“We immediately knew what to do. We followed exactly what we were told to do,” says Vandana, a shopper who was present there on the fateful day of the blasts.
Following the Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts earlier in 2008, the Delhi Police had conducted drills in a number of markets across Delhi. The police say the success of the model depends on people's response.
“The success of any such community policing endeavour is limited to the extent of proactiveness on the part if the people,” DCP, South Delhi, H G S Dhaliwal, says.
This only goes to show that a collaborative effort between police and citizens can go a long way in preventing loss of lives due to terror attacks.
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