Amritsar resumes blackout as part of nationwide civil defence drill; DPRO urges residents not to panic

Pic/Samiullah Khan

As part of a nationwide civil defence drill, the Amritsar district administration has resumed blackout measures to ensure public safety and preparedness, the District Public Relations Officer (DPRO) said on Wednesday. "Taking utmost caution, the Amritsar district administration has again started the blackout process. Please stay at home, do not panic and do not gather outside your houses; keep the outside lights switched off," the Amritsar DPRO said in a statement.

The blackout in Amritsar was part of a nationwide civil defence mock drill ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to check emergency preparedness in case of future threats. The exercise involved scheduled blackouts at key locations across the country.

Speaking about the prior blackout in Amritsar, ASI Jagtar Singh told ANI, "The blackout was between 10.30 pm and 11 pm, half an hour. The directions are that there should not be any lights on so that the enemy may not know there is a city here. The rehearsal is being done for the interest of the country... Some people are following the blackout, and some are not... The siren was activated and then there was a complete blackout within two minutes..."

Several states, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Bihar, also observed similar blackouts. Cities such as Barmer, Gwalior, Surat, Shimla, and Patna participated by switching off lights at key buildings and public spaces. In the national capital, Delhi, Rashtrapati Bhavan and Vijay Chowk also went dark for the drill. Raj Bhavan in Patna participated too.

Earlier in the day, civil defence mock drills were conducted in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Gwalior, and Jaipur. These drills were meant to assess how local authorities and citizens respond to emergencies.

The nationwide preparedness drill came after the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor early on Wednesday. This was a retaliatory strike on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), in response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians, including one Nepali national, were killed.

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