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| LeT has 'sky strikers', too | | Govt. alerts States against plane hijack plans | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, AUG. 6 Deadset to intensify terror campaings in as many regions as possible, the dreaded Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is reported to have built a new class of 'sky strikers'--aircraft hijackers, in plain language. According to a report, which needs due confirmation and verification, Al Qaeda planners have equipped the LeT with an unspecified number of young persons, trained in the art and trechnique of carying out strikes in air--that is, hijacking planes.
Since the LeT, as admitted by official agencies, has sucessfully managed to set up bases or launching pads in several areas of India, in addition to Jammu and Kashmir, the government of India has deemed it necessary to remind the police and security and intelligence agencies of their enhanced role in maintaining a "greater vigil" and reviewing the measures against merchants of terror. No wonder, the Centre's fresh directive for tightening of security around the airports in the country.
As many as 16 airports in India, including one each in Jammu and Srinagar, are going to have human body scanners. In fact, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which has been assigned to protect 54 of India's main airports, has urged the Union government to make available state-of-the-art body scanners. The two strategic airports at Jammu and Srinagar, having been declared 'hypersensitive', will witness some spectacular changes in near future as part of the government's strategy to render ineffective any mischief by subversives and anti-nationals.
The CISF headquarters, after assessing the threat perception and renewed thrust from Islamist rebels, wants the Ministry of Home Affairs to intervene and ensure availability of human body scanners for 16 airports. The CISF's demand assumes importance in the context of warning from intelligence agencies vis-a-vis a 'human bomb' attempting to hijack a plane in India. It is learnt that intelligence agencies have also warned that airports and dockyards are "targets number one" for militants, especially Islamist militants fighting in Jammu and Kashmir. No wonder, the CISF is for installation of human body scanners at 16 airports categorised as 'hypersxensitve'.
According to security specialists, traditional scanners cannot look under the skin. Hence, all the more reason for the CISF top echelons' pleadings to the government to go for body scanners. These scanners, it is pointed out, use advanced X-Ray technology to draw a skeletal image of a human body and are considered to be a "fool-proof" measure against hijacking. It is also pointed out that attempts to hijack a plane in India will not be confined to one State only. The CISF's think-tank is said to have informed the government that while airports in Jammu and Kashmir call for further tightening of security measures, airports in Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Patna and Assam need state-of-the-art body scanners without delay.
The CISF think-tank has also noted that terrorist activty is not confined to the troubled State of Jammu and Kashmir alone. Terrorists, it is also pointed out, are coming out of Kashmir and targeting all over India. In this connection, a pointed reference is made to three recent developments-- two suspected militant strikes in Varanasi and Bangalore, and the arrest of three suspected Islamist militants. These militants had planned to attack India's largest Kandla Port.
The use of body scanners has come in for some criticism in the West as passengers have complained that it amounts to a strip-search and violates their privacy. IATA, while surveying air security, has let it be known: "It is acepted in industry that, even as security measures on the ground and in the air get tougher, so will the cunning and resourcefulness of determined hijackers in turn increase, to thwart those measures". |
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