Ghaziabad, May 7 -- Air-raid sirens, crash blackouts and rapid-response drills will unfold across Ghaziabad on Wednesday as the district joins a nationwide civil defence exercise aimed at testing wartime preparedness and civilian coordination in high-risk zones.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced a coordinated mock drill across 244 designated civil defence districts, in the wake of rising tensions with Pakistan following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, that left 26 tourists dead.

Ghaziabad is among the selected districts in Uttar Pradesh-alongside Lucknow, Kanpur city, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Agra, Jhansi, Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Mathura, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar (Chanda...