The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai is a lurking danger. If airport sources are to be believed, there are so many loopholes in airport security here that what happened in Karachi on Sunday can well happen in CSIA any time.
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) spokesperson in New Delhi Hemendra Singh parroted the standard line: "Security has been beefed up."
But stories narrated by others like Nicholas Almeida are chilling.
"First and foremost," Almeida, an activist, politician and union leader of airport workers, said, "are the huge sewage pipes leading to the Mithi river. One can easily sneak inside the airport premises through them."
The box-type gutter near the cargo section, which is thinly manned, is another security loophole, he pointed out.
The 276 acres of slums around the airport land doesn't help matters either. From certain places in the slums, aircraft are well withing striking distance of a bullet or a rocket launcher.
Airport insiders says even airside (inside airport) security is porous. In March this year, a sacked contract employee allegedly made good with a Bolero car from inside the airport. Later it, turned out he hadn't returned his ID card even after being served with the pink slip.
"The accused zoomed away with the Bolero from gate no. 5 and no security guard stopped him. The security personnel did not even make an entry in their register when the vehicle left the airport premises," senior police inspector Rajendra Nagbhire of the airport police station had told dna in March.
10/06/14 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis
