New Delhi: Air India has started ladder-point checks of passengers and crew and their cabin luggage for its flights to and from Kabul, following a hijacking alert issued by the Intelligence Bureau.
"The ladder-point checking at the Delhi airport is done by CISF personnel and the local security in Kabul does the checking there," an Air India official said on condition of anonymity. "Post the checking at the ladder, we also check all luggage in the overhead bin and their owners are identified. No luggage, without any owner, is allowed to stay in the flight."
The official added that they started these checks around the Christmas time, when the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had issued an alert warning of another Kandahar-style hijacking and urging the airline to scan passengers and crew thoroughly.
On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines flight (IC 814) from Kathmandu to Kandahar with 174 passengers and 11 crew members was hijacked by Pakistani terror group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The hijackers forced India to release terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh before they released the passengers and crew. One passenger, 28year-old Rupin Katyal, was stabbed to death. Kandahar was then controlled by Taliban.
07/01/15 Economic Times
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"The ladder-point checking at the Delhi airport is done by CISF personnel and the local security in Kabul does the checking there," an Air India official said on condition of anonymity. "Post the checking at the ladder, we also check all luggage in the overhead bin and their owners are identified. No luggage, without any owner, is allowed to stay in the flight."
The official added that they started these checks around the Christmas time, when the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had issued an alert warning of another Kandahar-style hijacking and urging the airline to scan passengers and crew thoroughly.
On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines flight (IC 814) from Kathmandu to Kandahar with 174 passengers and 11 crew members was hijacked by Pakistani terror group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The hijackers forced India to release terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh before they released the passengers and crew. One passenger, 28year-old Rupin Katyal, was stabbed to death. Kandahar was then controlled by Taliban.
07/01/15 Economic Times
