IGI Airport gets yet another hoax terror call

Security agencies on Wednesday went into a tizzy after the call centre at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here received an anonymous call about the presence of a “terrorist” at the airport. The call was later declared as “non-specific” by the bomb threat assessment committee, airport sources said.

Flight operations during this period were unaffected, they said. “At around 2.30 am, the call centre of the Indira Gandhi International Airport received an anonymous call saying that someone from Amritsar present at the airport was a terrorist. The information was immediately passed on to the airport authorities as well as all the aviation security agencies,” a senior security official said, adding, “The BTAC (bomb threat assessment committee) was formed to assess the threat.”

The sources said that the security agencies carried out an extensive screening of the people at the airport. “We alerted all security wings at the airport and a thorough sanitisation exercise was conducted,” said the senior official, adding, “At about 3.30 am, the call was declared as non-specific.” The Delhi police officials said that they are trying to trace the call and are probing the matter further.

Last week, in a similar incident, an unknown caller had telephoned the airport desk and said that a balloon-type object has been spotted near the Delhi airport towards Gurgaon side after which security agencies had swung into action. However, nothing concrete could be found in the matter and the call was later declared as a “hoax.”

Before that, about two months ago, spotting of a drone-shaped object near the Delhi airport had prompted the Delhi police to declare an award of `1 lakh for anyone who could provide any information about the unidentified object.

“Of late, such hoax calls have increased,” said a senior Delhi police officer, adding, “Today’s call regarding a man from Amritsar also appears, from initial investigations, to be a prank or a call by someone to settle personal scores.”

“We are investigating the matter from all possible angles.”