Amid a heightened alert in the wake of Brussels terror attacks, security agencies have stepped up vigil at sensitive airports in the country with passengers being made to take off their footwear and belts and go through intensive frisking. At major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad, CISF and local police have shored up the security apparatus and passengers are being observed and screened minutely with reintroduction of risk-based Secondary Ladder Point Check (SLPC) which entails frisking people before they enter the aircraft.
The surveillance and patrol teams along the peripheries have also been asked to be extra cautious as passengers enter the terminal area unchecked. While fliers at many such airports are being asked to take off their footwear and belt to undertake a “clean search”, a second layer of profiling-based body search and frisking is being conducted just before passengers board the aircraft.
Another official said the hand baggage and booked cargo of the fliers has also been brought under detailed search as part of the stepped up security drills and measures put in place in the wake of the terror attacks in airport and metro station at Brussels that left 31 people dead and 300 injured.
Airlines and special teams of the CISF and airport security have been asked to conduct risk-based Secondary Ladder Point Check (SLPC) which entails frisking passengers on the air side just before entering the aircraft. They said these instructions are for people who look to be suspicious and hence not all passengers have to go through the SLPC.
Armed Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) of Central Industrial Security Force commandos and local police have been positioned at vantage locations to enhance vigil along the peripheries of these airports, they said. Special anti-sabotage teams and bomb detection and disposal teams and sniffer dogs have been asked to be on stand by at these airports.
