Parliament security breach: Smoke canisters smuggled in shoes expose security gaps | India News

NEW DELHI: Twenty-two years ago, British national Richard Reid — who would later earn timeless global infamy as the ‘shoe bomber’ — hid plastic explosives in his shoes and boarded a trans-Atlantic passenger flight with an intent to detonate the ‘shoe bomb’ mid-way through his journey from Paris to Miami.
However, luck ended up favouring the passengers and not Reid, whose dishevelled exterior and fidgety mannerisms aroused the crew’s suspicion and led them to bust his terror design.US agencies would later discover he had converted to Islam during an earlier prison stay and joined Al Qaeda. As the damp fuse in his ‘shoe bomb’ failed to ignite, thanks to the rainy weather preceding the flight and perspiration from his foot, he was overpowered by the alert co-passengers and flight crew and restrained with seat belt extensions and waist-belts. The flight was diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, US, where he was arrested. Reid is currently serving his sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.
On Wednesday, the shoe once again became the vehicle for an intended attack, this time on Indian Parliament. A couple of visitors managed to smuggle smoke canisters into the Lok Sabha, undetected by the multiple layers of Parliament security, jump from the visitors gallery into the House during the Question Hour and stun the people’s representatives by whipping out canisters from the shoes and spraying yellow billows of smoke.

The smoke, fortunately, was harmless. However, the incident may have embarrassingly exposed the security gaps in Lok Sabha’s access control, notwithstanding the massive security overhaul it underwent after the 2001 terror attack on Parliament exactly 22 years ago. Given that the canisters could make it right up to the Lok Sabha visitors’ gallery, craftily hidden in the intruders’ shoes, one may wonder how things would have turned out had the contents been noxious. A former police officer who has handled VIP security opined that it may not have been the best call by the MPs to get close to the intruder.
Reid’s shoe-bombing attempt — coming as it did months after the 9/11 attacks in the US carried out using passenger aircraft — had permanently changed the security protocols at airports. All airports in the US and many across Europe since require passengers to remove their shoes or boots at security check and pass them through the scanners to rule out the presence of plastic explosives like PETN. In fact, many vital buildings of national importance follow airport-style security checks for visitors.
The Indian Parliament has deployed door frame metal detectors, pass scanners and X-ray machines and has the security staff frisk all visitors at two access points. However, the frisking staff rarely checks the insides or sole of the visitors’ shoes, even though the Reid shoe-bombing attempt had shown that shoes, unless removed and placed in a separate tray, may clear security with a plastic explosive packed inside.
It remains to be seen if the latest incident will trigger a further security revamp at Parliament, including mandating visitors to remove their shoes for pre-entry screening. Other options already being discussed are tighter restrictions on the entry of visitors and staff of MPs as well as the deployment of full body scanners.
Meanwhile, the home ministry, on a request from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, has ordered an enquiry into Wednesday’s LS security breach. An enquiry committee headed by CRPF DG Anish Dayal Singh and comprising members from other security agencies as well as experts will investigate the reasons for the breach, identify lapses and recommend further action. The panel has been asked to submit its report with recommendations, including how to improve security in Parliament, at the earliest.
Watch Major security breach in Lok Sabha on Parliament attack anniversary, visitors jump from gallery, burst canisters