Clip of Mock Drill From Maharashtra Shared as ‘Terrorists Caught With Bomb'

The video shows a mock drill in Paratwada in Maharashtra's Amravati, which the police conducted to spread awareness.

A clip of a mock drill in Maharashtra's Amravati showing commandos arresting people from a bus is being shared on social media, where users have claimed that it shows two terrorists being caught with a bomb. The video also shows a team extracting a box from the bus, and then defusing the 'bomb'.

However, we found a longer version of the clip being shared, where the police can be seen addressing bystanders and informing them that the exercise was a drill.

The incident occurred in Paratwada, Amravati in Maharashtra and Inspector Mankar, the policeman seen in the video confirmed to The Quint that it was a drill.

CLAIM

The video is being shared with Hindi text, which reads -

"महाराष्ट्र के अमरावती मे दो आतंकवादी पकडे गये ये बस मे बम ले कर जा रहे थे"

[Translation: Two terrorists were caught while trying to carry a bomb on a bus in Maharashtra's Amravati.]

More claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Using keywords such as 'Amravati bus stand terrorists' in Marathi on YouTube, we came across longer clips of the incident, taken from different angles. One such clip uploaded to a channel called 'Vidarbh Prabhat', showed police personnel addressing bystanders towards the end of the video.

It noted that the video was from Paratwada, Amravati in Maharashtra.

Around the 5-minute-36-second mark in the video, a policeman can be seen speaking to the people at the bus stand.

He is heard telling them that the incident was a mock drill to spread awareness, asking people to exercise caution around stray packages, especially during the upcoming festive season.

We found more videos of the incident uploaded by other channels on YouTube.

Speaking to The Quint, Inspector Sadanand Mankar from Paratwada police station in Amravati confirmed that it was a mock drill conducted on 14 October.

"We told bystanders about it and later we went around the town in our police vehicle announcing the same. We do it every once in a while to spread awareness about how people should behave in such scenarios," he said.

Evidently, a video of a mock drill in Paratwada in Maharashtra's Amravati, was wrongly shared by social media users as terrorists being caught with a bomb aboard a bus.

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