CISF learns to find suspects through luggage at airport

If you are travelling without luggage or wearing a particular type of clothes or showing anxiety, you may come under the watch of an expert at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Faizan Haider reports. Under the watchful eye

If you are travelling without luggage or wearing a particular type of clothes or showing anxiety, you may come under the watch of an expert at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

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To improve security standards at Delhi's Indira Gandhi airport, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel are getting training in profiling passengers from experts from Israel - some of the best in business.

Profiling a passenger helps security personnel zero in on people who betray suspicious behaviour and is usually employed to nab drug traffickers. A timely intervention may help the personnel grab a potential peddler or terrorist before he boards a plane.

"We are taking the help of experts in improving the security standards at airports. Profiling is the most important factor in security as you cannot check each and every person before he/she reaches the security area. Under the new system, a passenger comes under scrutiny as soon as he/she arrives at the terminal," said a senior CISF official, requesting anonymity.

According to sources, the intelligence team of CISF identify suspicious passengers outside the terminal and inform their colleagues about the suspect's details on a wireless set. "That passenger and his baggage are checked at the gate itself and our staff in plain clothes start following them. Generally people travelling without luggage are being questioned more about the purpose of travel," the official added.

Sources said that type of clothes a person is wearing is also an important factor when it comes to profiling passengers. "To meet challenges at airports, CISF personnel are trained in profiling and behaviour detection in order to neutralise the person, who could be a potential threat to the security," said the officer.

"We have a batch of people who have been trained by Israeli experts and they would train other staff," the officer said.

The team has also submitted its suggestion on the use of tools during construction in the terminal. "At foreign airports, they completely sanitise the area, where any kind of construction is going on. Also numbering of tools are done to make sure, someone is not hiding them. A final policy will come soon," the official added.