CISF to take over airport security at Jammu & Srinagar

AGRA/SRINAGAR: Following the arrest of Davinder Singh, a DSP with the J&K police who was posted with the anti-hijacking team at Srinagar airport, the UT government has decided to hand over internal security at Jammu and Srinagar airports to the CISF by January 31. Till now, security at the airports was jointly handled by J&K Police and the CRPF. The CRPF would continue to take care of security of the outer areas of the airports.
The airports at Jammu and Srinagar are categorised as “hyper-sensitive”, while the one in Leh is “sensitive” considering its strategic location.The CRPF would continue to take care of security of the outer areas of the airports.
In a letter to the J&K DGP, a copy of which is with TOI, the home department has written that handing over of security of the airports to CISF has “acquired immediacy” in view of the recent development relating to the arrest of Davinder Singh, who was caught last week with top Hizbul Mujahideen militants Syed Naveed Mushtaq and his two accomplices at a checkpoint on the national highway.
“Based on the inspection conducted by Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), Ministry of Civil Aviation and Government of India and in view of the facts, it is necessary to initiate the process of handing over the security of two airports of Jammu and Srinagar to CISF,” the letter reads. The plan was unfolding since March, 2018.
The CISF has a special aviation security group (ASG) that looks after airport security. The runways at the three airports, unlike the others in the country, would continue to taken care of security by the Air Force.
Confirming the request for deployment of CISF at Jammu and Srinagar airports, Hemendra Singh, the public relation officer at CISF headquarters, said “certain things are required to be put in place” at the airports before the deployment of the force takes place. “Once that happens, CISF personnel will move there,” he said.
Sources in the security establishment told TOI that Jammu airport will be the first to be handed over to the CISF. While over 400 personnel will be deployed at the airport, more than 600 personnel will be deputed at the Srinagar hub. The CISF deployment at Leh airport is also in the pipeline and nearly 250 will be posted thereafter the end of the current severe winter spell.
The sources added that the government has asked the J&K police chief to arrange suitable accommodation for the CISF personnel at both the airports along with transport and other pre-induction formalities on “most immediate” basis.
CISF, with about 1.6 lakh personnel, was first tasked with the security of airports in the aftermath of the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft. The federal force now guards 61 of the operational civil airports across the country.
(With inputs from Saleem Pandit)