CISF can tell if you have touched a bomb

To make airports safer, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has purchased Explosive Trace Detectors (ETD), which can tell if anyone has touched any explosive items in the past 24 hours.

To make airports safer, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has purchased Explosive Trace Detectors (ETD), which can tell if anyone has touched any explosive items in the past 24 hours.

CISF has purchased Explosive Trace Detectors, which can tell if anyone has touched any explosive items in the past 24 hours. (HT File Photo)

Since travellers spend considerable time before the security check at the airport, the CISF stops them randomly just after they enter the terminal.

Based on profiling, they are taken to a separate enclosure and the ETD check is carried out. The device scans the baggage and the travellers’ hands to check whether they have packed explosives in their luggage.

“There will be some trace of the explosive on the travellers’ hands if they have touched it before coming to the airport. We have a few devices at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and passengers are checked with it before they proceed for boarding,” said a senior CISF official.

At the Delhi airport, the CISF has separate enclosures located near the entry gate, where we check suspicious-looking travellers.

“Their baggage is scanned and they are frisked. Then the ETD check is carried out. The hand-held device is easy to use,” the official added.

The CISF said it would order more such devices to make the IGI airport more secure. The CISF looks after the security of airports across the country. The new security equipment and their maintenance is the responsibility of the airport operator, which in Delhi is the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL).

“We have only three ETD for 14 baggage X-rays at T1D. At least seven ETDs are required as per the guidelines of the Bureau for Civil Aviation Security (BCAS),” the official added.

The CISF is also planning to use hand-held ETDs to check passengers with artificial limbs so they do not have to go through the trauma of removing it during security check.

Usually the ETD is used to check the prosthetic limb, but the CISF says it is meant only for detection of explosives. There is always a chance that a person may try to use a prosthetic limb to hide a weapon.

Now the CISF has requested for an upgraded version of the ETD so that the travellers do not have to remove their prosthetic limbs.