NEW DELHI: Security agencies have alerted airports across the country in the wake of a purported al-Qaeda video in which the terror outfit has threatened to carry out a destructive campaign in India.
At all civil airports, the main security guarding force CISF, state police forces and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) have been asked by central security agencies to issue directives in this regard to their units and step up surveillance of suspicious activities.
The agencies have been asked to remain alert, both in the city and air sides, of these facilities which are thronged by lakhs of passengers every day to reach destinations within the country and abroad.
Sources said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which secures 59 civil airports at present, has been asked to put special stress on routine drills at the airports and undertake secondary ladder point (SLP) checking wherever required.
SLP is done just before a flier is about to enter an aircraft and after he or she has been cleared during manual frisking of his person and belongings.
The Union Home Ministry, after a review by Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday, had already alerted all states and security agencies to take possible precautionary steps in this regard.
Security agencies feel the video could be an attempt by al-Qaeda to carry out fresh recruitments in the sub-continent as it stares at diminishing influence vis-a-vis the ISIS, a similar terrorist group which has come to the fore in the recent past.–PTI