Jammu: A counter-insurgency drill by police at a building near the main road in Janipur locality here led to panic among locals who mistook it to be a security threat.
Police teams, accompanied by experts from the bomb disposal squad and sniffer dogs, were pressed into action at the building that houses a departmental store on its ground floor and a bank branch on the first floor.
The manager of the branch, who was caught unawares of the drill, heard the policemen speaking about bombs and called up the local police station for help.
Soon, rumours about bomb scare in the building spread among the employees of the bank and the departmental store, and also the locals, even as the police teams, who were part of the counter-insurgency drill, moved them out and sealed the building.
The officials said the building was thrown open to the public after the drill. Traffic on the main road, that lay close to the building, however, remained uninterrupted throughout.
Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police Chandan Kohli said counter-insurgency drills are a routine in the security set up.
“People are requested to refrain from rumour-mongering,” the officer said in a brief statement.
