CISF conducts drills to counter terror at airports

New Delhi: In a bid to counter any terror threat at the airports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) conducted counter-terrorism exercise at 30 hyper-sensitive and international airports located in state capitals and Union territories last year. The initiative comes against the backdrop of the suicide attack by terrorists at the BSF camp located near Srinagar International Airport last year.

“Multi-agency counter-terrorisim exercise at 30 hyper-sensitive and international airports located in state capitals and Union territories have been conducted in October 2017 along with the special forces of the state police to familiarise the special forces with the functioning and topography of the airports, enhance co-ordination amongst various security agencies, as well as chisel operational efficiency of all participating forces,” said CISF additional general (airport sector) MA Ganapathy.

“In all these mock drills in which all the stakeholders in the airport security participated and later discussed the matter about how to evacuate the passengers and other airport employees from the airport premises if in case any terror attack took place at the IGI airport in Delhi or any other airport across the country,” said a senior CISF official on condition of anonymity.

“We don’t want to lose crucial moments that may prove vital in saving the lives of those under attack. In such cases, these bulletproof vehicles can be used during emergency and may be converted into temporary ambulances,” said the official.

A parliamentary report in December 2015 said, “India is amongst the most terrorism affected countries. Latest threat inputs include surgically implanted explosives for unlawful interference in civil aviation operations and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hidden in printer ink and toner cartridges.”