Exercise keeps citizens in Ahmedabad on tenterhooks for four hours

The mock drill held at the Sardar Patel stadium in Navrangpura on Tuesday, created tremendous chaos and confusion in the city. People started panicking, thinking it was a terrorist attack, even as rumour-mongers had a field day.

In the course of the drill, police personnel were seen in action, and gunshots were heard, leading to false reports that a possible terror attack was going on in the area. A large number of people living or working in the vicinity were alarmed, and with the exercise going on for a good three hours, the numbers of the inquisitive only grew. A lot of people thought that Ahmedabad's own 26/11 was going on inside.

What created this apprehension was the fact that mock drills look very real. The surprise element is kept alive and all 'combat' is conducted in a way that looks very authentic, so that the men in uniform are trained to be fully ready for actual terrorist strikes.
There were also those who had no business to be in the stadium area, but landed up there on hearing about the supposed attacks. Like so many curious people all over the world, they wanted to be as close as possible to the scene of action.

Later, when they came to know that it was not the real thing, many regretted having left their workplace to come all the way there.
Umang Panchal, a businessman who lives near the stadium, said, "The paan shop opposite the stadium is a meeting point for my friends and me. One of them informed me of the 'attack', and I immediately left my factory in Shahpur to come back home. I have learnt a lesson today: do not jump to conclusions."

There were many like him who felt that the moral of the story was that they should have waited for a formal announcement or information, before assuming the mock drill to be a terrorist 'attack'.