Get ready for more frisking at airport

From next month, the wait at the Delhi airport will get longer as the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), responsible for security at airports across the country, will frisk passengers and check baggage at random at the entry to the terminal. HT reports.

From next month, the wait at the Delhi airport will get longer as the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), responsible for security at airports across the country, will frisk passengers and check baggage at random at the entry to the terminal.

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The additional security measures are being taken in the wake of the January 24 suicide attack in Moscow airport, where a man walked into the arrivals hall and blew himself up, killing 36 people and injuring more than 100.

“We have recently started concourse checking (at large areas where passengers pass through) at three airports — Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad for the first time. It is soon going to be introduced in Delhi also,” said CISF director general Niraj Ranjan Das at the annual conference of the CISF on Monday.

Asked by mediapersons whether airport operators are ready for the measures as it could lead to long queues, Das said there shouldn’t be any problem as checking would be done at random.

“The behaviour of persons entering the airport will determine whether he is required to be frisked. We are not going to frisk each and every person entering the airport,” Das said. A baggage scanner will be placed at the terminal gate to scan baggage at random.

Currently, anyone can enter the terminal building by showing his or her ticket as no checking is done at the entry gate. “It is practically very difficult to introduce checking at the entry gate as most airports are not built for this. For example if we start checking passengers at the gate at the Delhi airport, there will be long queues outside the terminal,” said a CISF official who did not want to be named.