India has increased the number of sky marshals deployed on commercial flights after the terrorist attack in Uri and in view of intelligence reports indicating an imminent hijack threat.
A sky marshal, also known as an air marshal or flight marshal, is an undercover agent onboard a commercial aircraft to counter a hijacking attempts. Sky marshals are deployed on random on domestic and international flights.
“The deployment of sky marshals has gone up substantially, especially on international flights, after the terrorist attack in Uri. Other security measures like increased passenger profiling are being done,” said an aviation ministry official.
There have been regular intelligence inputs warning of possible attempts to hijack an aircraft ever since an Indian Airlines flight (IC-814) was hijacked by members of Pakistan-based terror groups in 1999.
Government has also decided to set-up a hotline and video-conferencing facility to connect the country’s 12 top airports with the anti-hijack control room at the cabinet secretariat office in Rashtrapati Bhawan, as first reported by HT on January 21.
Aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had recently warned state governments to strengthen security at airports citing the terror attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport.
“Airports have become a valued target for the terror groups as it gathers attention all over and creates adverse psychological impact in the minds of our citizenry,” Raju wrote.
{{/usCountry}}“Airports have become a valued target for the terror groups as it gathers attention all over and creates adverse psychological impact in the minds of our citizenry,” Raju wrote.
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