Rashmee Roshan Lall, TNN
London: The first European terrorism survival course for the common man is starting in Britain, with plans to fan out across the world, including India, a known high-risk destination.
The day-long course, priced at £ 150 per head, teaches survival techniques to ordinary people faced with perils now increasingly part of 21st century life. These include suicide bomb scenarios, 9/11 style aeroplane hijackings and attacks with IEDs or improvised explosive devices.
Simon Leila, director of 60 Defence Limited, which is soon to unveil the courses "for Joe Public" here in the UK, told TOI (ON TUESDAY) that the June 30 attack on Glasgow airport underlined the grisly fact that "terror has come to the home and ordinary members of the public now realize everyone is a target".
Leila, who has lived all over the world and claims a family line that includes Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus through his half-Indian wife, says the nature of modern terrorism has changed and the course addresses this fundamental shift. "In the Cold War days, terrorism was about individual countries. In Northern Ireland or Kashmir, there was an end game with a defined political agenda. Now, there are terrorists whose aim is to maim and kill as many as possible. No agenda."
Europe, he adds, is doomed to see an escalation of terrorist activity, increasingly involving the man on the street.
This is why 360 Defence is launching a course that departs from the usual. Till now, counter-terrorism training was mainly offered to professionals belonging to giant corporations such as oil companies, leading media outlets such as the BBC and government agencies.
But the attack on Glasgow airport, by Bangalore engineer Kafeel Ahmed, who drove a blazing jeep into the departure terminal, gave a fillip to the Scotland-headquartered 360 Defence’s plans for a common man’s counter-terrorism course, Leila says.
There are a handful of parallel courses for the common man in America, Leila says, but his is the first in Europe and the first to evince an interest in expanding around the world. "We have run courses for the security agencies in India but there is an identifiable need for a Joe Public’s course in India".
The course, which will include "lots of pyrotechnics" and have Leila and his team of instructors acting out scenarios that include grenade attacks in urban locations, is already heavily oversubscribed. Each course will have a maximum of 15 delegates. The emphasis will be on the three A’s, says Leila, "awareness, anticipation and avoidance".
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes
Terrorism Exposed Through FACT Exhibitions
