Bodh Gaya blasts: Airports on high alert

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF),the premier security agency with anti-hijack and anti-sabotage duties,will be required to conduct a thorough check of passengers.

“In the wake of the Bodh Gaya blasts,we have enhanced the security across all airports in the country. While procedures are usually in place since airports are sensitive areas,we are taking no chances” a senior CISF official said.

Sources said CISF deployment will increase across airports especially those which are in the hyper-sensitive category. The category has 22 airports including Lucknow,Thoise,Agartala,Amritsar,Bagdogara,Siliguri,Bangalore,Chennai,IGI airport,Guwahati,Hyderabad,HAL,Imphal,Indore,Jaipur,Jammu,Kolkata,Leh,Mumbai,Pune,Srinagar,Varanasi,Raipur.

Airport sources said passengers will be subject t o secondary ladder checks just before boarding the aircraft. “The passengers will be frisked twice in all before boarding the aircraft. The frisking will be done by airline staff,” the official said.

Sources said that deployment of CISF personnel will also be increased across airports to maintain extra vigil including at the city side. They said that surveillance staff and patrolling teams will also be enhanced to ensure nothing suspicious goes unnoticed. City side deployment of CISF personnel in plain clothes will be done both inside and outside the airport terminal buildings. The CISF staff has been sensitized to be more vigilant for suspicious bags,vehicles in and around the airport.

CISF personnel will also do passenger profiling to identify potential threats and will conduct a thorough check of baggage. All vehicles entering the airport will be randomly checked by the CISF at various entry points to the airport.

“A revised consolidated list of normal,sensitive and hypersensitive airports was released after consultation with intelligence agencies. The list includes 17 airports in the normal category including Gwalior,Port Blair and Tuticorin. There are 57 airports that come in the sensitive category which include Kochi,Aurangabad,Chandigarh and Gorakhpur,” the official said.