Airports on high alert after AI hijack threat

NEWDELHI: Airports across India were put on a state of high alert on Saturday and security tightened in and around them, specially their parking areas, after an anonymous caller warned the Air India control room in Mumbai of a possible attempt to hijack a flight to Pakistan, three officials familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The threat call was received at 9:45 pm on Friday.

Saturday’s measures, which include enhanced scanning and security at critical entry and exit points and checking of vehicles entering car parks, are expected to be in force for at least two weeks, the officials said.

On February 14, a suicide bomber suspected to be affiliated to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-mohammad drove a vehicle into a CRPF bus in Pulwama, killing 40 troopers in the deadliest terrorist strike in the northern state. The attack ratcheted up tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued an alert on Saturday, asking airport operators to start intensive checking of vehicles entering car parks to preclude the possibility of them being fitted with car bombs.

To be sure, security alerts are fairly routine in India, especially in times of regional tensions of the kind sparked by the Pulwama attack.

“Soon after the Pulwama attack, security was intensified at airports but after the alert on Saturday, additional personnel have been deployed at parking areas and cargo areas,” said a BCAS official, one of the three people cited in the first instance.

Following the call to the Air India control room, airlines flying to Pakistan and West Asia have been asked to conduct a so-called secondary ladder point check, where passengers are checked just before boarding a plane. “We have strengthened the security at the approach road and through speed breakers; vehicles are being slowed down; we have also asked the airlines to start the Secondary Ladder Point Checking (SLPC) just before passengers enter the aircraft. We request the passengers to reach before time; because of multiple layers of security, the queues are expected to be longer,” said a second of the three people, a senior official of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

CISF provides security to 60 of the about 100 operational airports in the country.

SLPC is conducted when a threat perception is at its highest, and passengers have to go through a complete frisking just before entering the aircraft.

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has also formed a sweeping squad and those who are trained in passenger profiling are part of it. “Their job is to identify suspicious passengers as soon as they enter the airport. The members of this squad have been placed across the airport,” the BCAS official added.

THE MEASURES INCLUDE ENHANCED SECURITY AT CRITICAL POINTS AND CHECKING OF VEHICLES ENTERING CAR PARKS