Mock drill video shared as explosions recovered in Maharashtra’s Ahmadnagar bus stand

A video where uniformed men can be seen with arms in a bus stand has been shared on social media with the claims that four people with explosions where arrested during a raid in Ahmadnagar Maliwada bus stand, Maharashtra.

Most people have circulated the clip on both Facebook and Twitter using a Marathi caption – “अहमदनगर माळीवाडा बस स्टँडवर स्फोटके व चार जण पथकाच्या ताब्यात.”

अहमदनगर माळीवाडा बस स्टँडवर स्फोटके व चार जण पथकाच्या ताब्यात pic.twitter.com/ZRrddQrWT7

— mileen (@Akhade121M) September 4, 2019

Visuals from the video have been forwarded on WhatsApp with a different claim suggesting that the incident took place in Ganesh Peth bus stand, Nagpur.

Mock drill

There are several clues in the video which suggest that it does not depict a real incident but a mock drill – there’s no panic on the streets and passers-by can be seen standing behind demarcation rope. At one point in the video, a policeman can be heard saying, “गाड़ी को हटा लोगों को जाने दे बाहर (Remove the car, let the people go outside.)”

A keyword search on Google – “Ahmadnagar Maliwada bus stand mock drill” – led us to a September 4 report in Maharashtra Times. According to the police, in the backdrop of Ganesh Chaturthi, the state police had organised a mock drill at the bus station in the evening. “Police cordoned off the area around the terrorist bus. The passengers were taken down, causing confusion among them. In the meantime, police climbed onto the roof of the bus. Some went on the bus through the window. One by one, four terrorists were taken out of a bus and slept on the ground. They were then arrested and taken to the police van. Until all this happened, the passengers at the bus station knew nothing. Upon completion of the mock drill, the passengers were informed that it was a mock drill,” said the report.

A Facebook page ‘मराठी वादळ‘ shared a video of the same mock drill taken from a different angle.

A video of a mock drill was thus shared on social media as explosive recovered by the police in Maharashtra’s Ahmadnagar Maliwada bus stand. Earlier, another video of a routine mock drill by Maharashtra police was circulated with the claim that Mumbai is on high terrorist alert.