Mock Drill

While everyone has spoken about the polices reaction time and their efficiency during the mock drill conducted a few days back maybe we need to even highlight the 2 hours of grueling experience faced by some people within the Nucleus Mall.
At around 4.45pm, while we were working out at the Abs Fitness and Wellness Club, in Nucleus mall a group of officers with guns and in plains clothes entered the gym and took a look around. Though we were quite amused to see them and also a little weary of the fact that we cannot move out of the place till the drill is over, we weren’t quite tense initially as we were informed beforehand that it was a mock drill.

Then all of a sudden all of us were rounded up by the cops and told by these armed officers that we need to be taken to the Bund Garden Police Station for an identification check-up and if by any chance any of us stay back or question we will be “marked as terrorists”. So from there only the people in the gym were taken down to the road and stuffed in rickety rackety police vans – while the rest of the people in the mall and on the roads looked upon us. From there we were taken in to the police station where were made to identify ourselves. The identification process included us waiting in the police station till another police official was free to take down our names, addresses and contact numbers sans any proof to verify that we our who we truly our. After that ordeal was over we were made to walk back to the mall as they did not have free transport to take us back. On our route back it was more amusing to find cops drinking chai and chatting with each other and grinning at us and other passer bys wondering why we were made to go to the police station.
I do not have an issue with them conducting a mock drill but yes, I do have issues with the way it was conducted. Firstly, why were only we made to go to the police station and not anyone else? Well, one of the cops said because they gym was crowded well so was the rest of the mall. Secondly, how can the cops threaten anyone during a mock drill to come with them forcibly to the police station or else we will be marked as terrorists? If we knew and were informed there is going to be a mock drill it is a little difficult to believe that these cops did not. Thirdly, why were we cramped up as though we were a bunch of criminals and taken to the police station they could have easily called someone to take down are names, phone numbers and addresses in the mall itself. Fourthly, what kind of an identification check-up is this supposed to be without any identity proof? First you tell us if we don’t come you are a terrorist and then you believe our identity just by word of mouth. Lastly, why were our 2 and a half hours wasted in what could also be called a humiliating experience. If it is for our safety, well, how are we to trust our cops when one says it’s a mock drill, one says there are unwanted elements in the city so we are checking out the mall and another says because we have to check the mall as its on the hit list. Its high time they are honest at least to the people whose time they are wasting and also looking at the overweight officers who look far from fit walking around the mall asking if we think anyone looks suspicious, I don’t think we will feel safe. Next time they are conducting a mock drill maybe they should take into consideration of not wasting our time and not making civilians feel like criminals.