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| New airport measures against hijacking | | Fresh orders for stepped-up vigil at J&K airports | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, May 25
The government of India has formulated a host of measures to secure airports and prevent hijacking. The measures include profiling of pasengers on the basisis of nationality and origin, it is learnt. Need for a stepped-up vigil at some airports in the country was highlighted at a five-hour-long meeting here.
These airports are at Jammu, Srinagar, Amritsar, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala. Informed sources said that it was decided at the meeting that profiling would be conducted through an advanced passenger information system. A background paper prepared for the meeting stressed that security agencies can undertake more stringent security checks on suspect passengers on the basis of advance information from flight bookings.
The meeting also reviewed how unauthorised persons can manage to access prohibited areas at airports, such as the airport tarmac. The agencies discussed a controversy raked up last month by Minister of State for External Affairs, Anand Sharma, who walked onto the tarmac by hoodwinking security personnel.
It was decided that biometric smart cards should be introduced for airport staff, delineating areas of the airport accessible by categories of staff based on their job duties. Once the system is in place, gates would not open unless the person’s fingerprints match the details on the smart card.
The background paper notes over two-dozen security lapses in the past few months which could have put airports at risk. These incidents include a former Civil Aviation Minister, CM Ibrahim, traveling to Chennai by air with an unloaded pistol in his hand baggage, Kerala CPM leader, Pinarayi Vijayan, carrying live cartridges in baggage from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai, and a top Mumbai industrialist travelling abroad with a gun in his luggage.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation also submitted a report on the surprise checks it conducts at airports and on aircraft to verify security preparations, stressing that a lot of laxity has been observed at small airports and private airliners. These weak links could be exploited by terrorists, civil aviation representatives said.
The National Security Guard (NSG), the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Indian Intelligence Force, which now handles security at all major airports, were among the agencies that participated in the meeting. The agencies urged the Home Ministry to deploy small detachments of the crack NSG commandos at major airports to reduce reaction time in crisis situations such as hijackings and terrorist attacks.
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