SRINAGAR: In an unprecedented security breach a vehicle carrying two civilians from Kupwara district entered the tarmac of Srinagar Airport through the high security Air Force Station and parked near an aircraft to receive friends coming from New Delhi, a New Delhi newspaper reported on Monday.
Parvaiz Ahmad Dar of Lachipora and Mudasir Ahmad Mir of Wadipora, Handwara, entered the highest security, Technical Area, through Rangreth at about 3 pm, reported The Hindu
This side of the airport has been completely out-of-bounds for civilians, including state government functionaries and has been strictly for the use of the Army and the IAF, besides VVIPs like the prime minister and the president.
While common entry to the Humhama side (New Airport) is regulated by the Central Reserve Police Force, passage through the Technical Area (Old Airport) is strictly controlled by the Army.
After making an entry in the log, the Army guards retained Dars driving licence and asked him to proceed, advising that the vehicle be checked by a bomb disposal squad inside the operational area. No one at the six barriers and checkpoints on the four km-long highest security corridor bothered to find out how the private car carrying two unauthorised civilians was heading towards the tarmac, the report said.
Driving through the IAF operational area of Indias most critical air base, Dar and Mir parked the car just 30 yards from an aircraft and walked into the arrival hall from the tarmac side to receive their guests travelling from Delhi on board a Go Air flight. The anti-hijacking police realised the breach when the two passengers collected their luggage and emerged from the tarmac gate in the company of the two non-passengers.
They were taken into custody and handed over to the Humhama police station. After 30 hours of questioning, the four were let off and their vehicle was released, The Hindu report said.
The communication claimed that nothing adverse was found in their antecedents. Dar and Mir said they had visited Srinagar Airport for the first time and neither of them was aware of its common entry point.
The matter was not found related to any kind of criminal/subversive intention but created due to unawareness of the driver and his colleague and inefficiency of the Army personnel who permitted the duo to go inside the airport after providing them BDS check slip, report said quoting Deputy SP of Budgam who interrogated the four.
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