Flight operations resumed at Kerala’s Kozhikode International Airport on Thursday amid tight security after an eight-hour shutdown necessitated by clashes between personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Fire and Rescue wing of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) on Wednesday night in which a CISF head constable was killed in firing.
State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said on Thursday morning that flight operations from the airport had resumed. “The situation at the Kozhikode airport is under total control now. Flight operations have returned to normal,” he said, adding that a probe had been ordered into Wednesday night’s incidents including the murder/death of the CISF Jawan.
The Kerala Police have registered a case over the incident under various sections including those pertaining to murder and attempt to murder. A special investigation team had been constituted for the purpose and Additional DGP (North) N Shanker Reddy will supervise the probe. The police will consider the CCTV recordings from the airport as decisive evidence.
Cases have been registered against 15 persons whose identities were not specified, and the police took statements from the AAI officials undergoing treatment for injuries suffered in Wednesday’s clashes. Ten Fire and Rescue men had been taken into custody. Eleven persons were “removed” from the airport on Wednesday night to avoid further trouble, the police said.
The war-like situation created by the clashes, which kept Kerala on the needlepoint of anxiety for several hours, had brought operations at the airport to a standstill. Trouble started at around 9.45 PM Wednesday after an AAI Fire and Rescue official protested against the manner in which he was frisked by the CISF men while entering a high-security area through the VIP gate.
The arguments soon turned into a heated altercation and with more men joining their respective colleagues on the spot, a violent clash ensued amidst which a CISF Sub-Inspector allegedly un-holstered his pistol and loaded it, possibly to scare the other side. The gun reportedly went off accidentally amidst the efforts of his colleagues to calm him down.
The bullet hit the CISF head constable, who died on the spot. Unconfirmed reports from Delhi said on Thursday evening that a secret report had put the responsibility for the CISF Jawan’s death on the Fire and Rescue personnel but AAI sources maintained that the gun could have gone off accidentally.
Charged with the rage over the fall of their colleague, the CISF men went on a rampage, hunting down AAI personnel, eyewitnesses said. They said there was even an incident of a CISF vehicle chasing an AAI jeep on the runway but the police refused to confirm this. Passengers said that the CISF men even tried to attack them in their fury.
Airport operations came to a standstill in a short while with the AAI’s offices in the airport premises, its vehicles and even the Air Traffic Control station coming under attack from the very men who were deployed to protect the airport. Three flights which were to land at the Kozhikode airport were diverted to the Kochi airport.
The Kerala Police took charge of the airport security in just over two hours with hundreds of personnel being called in from the nearby police stations and camps. They had a tough time bringing the situation under control but calm returned by Thursday morning following the marathon discussions ADGP Reddy and other officials held with the concerned parties.
“The outburst (by the CISF personnel) was perhaps the result of their inability to control their rage after seeing the killing of a colleague. It is understandable,” said an AAI official. A CISF officer said that they would offer full cooperation to the State police in their probe.
Civil aviation experts said that this was the first time such an incident had taken place in the history of aviation in India. “From what we heard, it was just like a war. Thank God, calm has been restored,” said a senior official of the Kochi International Airport.