MUMBAI, 14 November 2006 — Rail commuters on the Central and Western railway networks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Churchgate stations had a harrowing time during the peak hours yesterday evening, following a massive security drill carried out as part of a terror management exercise.
Hundreds of thousands of commuters were frisked to check the preparedness of a city that has faced repeated bomb attacks.
The security exercise comes four months after bombs on Mumbai’s teeming railway network killed over 200 people, an attack blamed by police on a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Security experts say India’s vast railway network that carries some 14 million passengers every day is a soft target for militants, who placed bombs on the luggage racks of unchecked trains and platforms in Mumbai in the July 11 attacks.
“We want to know if we have the wherewithal to check each and every passenger traveling through Churchgate station should there be a need to do so in future,” Satyaprakash, a senior railway official, told reporters.
The three-day drill in Mumbai began on Sunday at the Churchgate and Chhatrapati Shivaji terminuses where suburban and long distance trains bring about 2.5 million passengers every day into Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.
Rush hour commuters stood patiently in long queues to pass through metal detectors as dogs sniffed around and hundreds of policemen repeatedly checked baggage.
“About 1,000 people enter and exit each of the stations every minute. So you can understand what a huge drill it is,” Suresh Khopre, a railway police officer, told reporters.
“The security drill is an effort to avert terror attacks like the July serial train blasts and to strengthen the security system,” he said. As Sunday was a weekly holiday for most professionals and businessmen, the flow of commuters on the trains was thin.
The federal government had deployed 100 railway officials, 300 Railway Protection Force police, 200 Government Railway Police men, a large number of intelligence officials, Central Industrial Security Force members and a team of the dog squad. Besides, 35 metal detector doors, three X-ray machines and 40 hands held metal detectors were deployed for the frisking operations. There are plans to install high-tech machines and equipment.
Meanwhile, senior government officials will meet to discuss measures to prevent airplane hijacks after an FBI warning that a plane flying to the United States or Europe could be targeted. Security was stepped up at airports across the country on Sunday after the FBI told Indian intelligence agencies that it had information about plans to hijack a plane from India, officials said.
The warning followed a separate alert last week when a hand-written letter was found at a small airport in the south of the country warning of bomb attacks. That letter was found to be a hoax but still led to heightened security.
“The government is taking the threats against airports very seriously, especially the FBI warning,” Civil Aviation Ministry spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said.
The meeting will be chaired by the Cabinet secretary, the country’s senior most bureaucrat, and attended by Home Ministry officials, top airport officials and members of India’s various security agencies.
Security officials say that extra “spotters” to watch suspicious behavior among passengers have been deployed and airline staff asked to be extra vigilant.
Hours before the meeting, air traffic controllers in New Delhi had a scare after a Kuwait Airways aircraft accidentally flew over an air exclusion zone that covers the prime minister’s house and Parliament after takeoff. “The pilot turned the wrong way. He apologized,” Chakravarty said.
