31 October,2024 07:29 AM IST | Mumbai | Prasun Choudhari
The Spicejet SG116 aircraft that was travelling from Darbhanga to Mumbai received a bomb threat via social media last month. File Pic/Rane Ashish
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The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has released updated guidelines aimed at enhancing the evaluation of potential security threats. These guidelines incorporate new indicative factors for assessing threat credibility alongside the existing criteria. The updated framework by BCAS, detailed in a recent order, includes parameters intended to help security personnel more accurately determine the seriousness of threats.
The order accessed by mid-day has added the following assessment guidelines to the existing framework:
1. Identity of the person giving the threat
2. Allegiance of the person to any organisation or terror group
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3. Motive behind the threat
4. Verified social media account used for the threat
5. Any VVIP targeted?
A BCAS source told mid-day, "The new set of directives will help in identifying the severity of the threat and will also assist the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) in prioritising threats based on their gravity." For the past two days, October 30 and 31, no threats were received by Indian airlines.
Another senior BCAS official said, "After receiving numerous threats, we reviewed the situation to come up with these new additions. This way, the threats can be prioritised according to their severity. Additionally, the recent threats had our resources stretched thin. By prioritising the threats, we can concentrate more on all of them and distribute resources more appropriately."
Parallel to the BCAS developments, the Nagpur police's Special Branch has made headway in a series of hoax bomb threats that recently disrupted operations for multiple Indian airlines. Authorities have identified a suspect, Jagdish Uikey, a 35-year-old man believed to be behind these intimidating yet unfounded threats. Police sources told mid-day, "We traced the hoax threats back to the suspect, who remains at large as he is evading arrest."
The series of hoaxes heightened security measures, affected flight schedules and strained resources, with 565 threats reported by Indian airlines from October 14 to October 29.
