New Delhi: In response to a rising number of bomb threats targeting flights, the central government has announced plans to double the deployment of Air Marshals on flights departing from various airports across the country.
A senior official from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed that this decision comes after assessing the increasing threats and gathering information from intelligence agencies.
"The new batch of Air Marshals will be assigned to recently added international routes identified as sensitive based on intelligence reports. This decision was reached following multiple meetings with all stakeholders involved in aviation security," the official said.
Air Marshals, who are part of the National Security Guard (NSG) and specialize in anti-terrorism and anti-hijacking operations, primarily operate on international flights and select domestic routes.
These Sky Marshals are armed, plainclothes security personnel who travel aboard passenger aircraft. They were introduced in India in 1999 following the hijacking of Air India flight IC 814 in Kandahar, aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future. Equipped with firearms, they have the authority to intervene in case of a hijacking attempt.
Reports indicate that flights heading to Kabul (Afghanistan), Kathmandu (Nepal), Colombo (Sri Lanka), certain routes in Canada, and several destinations in the Middle East are classified as sensitive. The number of Sky Marshals assigned to each flight varies between two and six, depending on the assessed threat level.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation convened a high-level meeting after over ten bomb threats were reported on social media on Monday and Tuesday.
Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu held discussions with the Bureau of Civil Aviation, CISF, and other senior officials regarding airport security in light of these threats.
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