Poorly protected

Every member of airport security company at every airport in country should have their own dedicated protective gear.

It has been now a week since the attack on Karachi airport, and an ever clearer and more detailed picture emerges by the day. One issue that reads across airport security everywhere in the country and not only in Karachi, relates to the quality of equipment issued to the Airport Security Force (ASF) staff. Bullet-proof vests might be assumed to be standard issue for all ASF members, but that is not so. Eleven ASF personnel died during the attack, and according to autopsies and medical examinations the majority of them suffered bullet wounds to the upper torso, suggesting that either they were not wearing protective vests or if they were, the vests were inadequate to the situation they found themselves in. A medico-legal officer was quoted in this newspaper as saying that none of the ASF casualties was wearing protective gear when brought to the hospital, only their standard uniforms. These reports pose some harsh and glaring questions for the security administration.



Enquiry reveals that there are five ASF companies each of 68 men but there is a limited quota of bulletproof jackets, and they are only issued to those on duty at the most sensitive entrances to the airport. The attackers naturally chose the weakest point to launch their assault, killing the men on duty who, because the gate they guarded was regarded as low risk, would not have been wearing the vests that might have both saved their lives as well as given them a chance to fight back rather than be cut down. An ASF spokesperson admitted there were insufficient vests, but denied that those the ASF had were substandard.

This is no trivial matter. The protective vests are not expensive and a search of the internet reveals that good quality vests capable of stopping a 9mm round can be bought in bulk for around $100. Every member of every airport security company at every airport in the country should have their own dedicated protective gear and not just bulletproof vests. If we expect these men to lay down their lives in the defence of national air-assets then the least that the state can do is provide them with the wherewithal to do that effectively. Anything less is foolhardy in the extreme.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.

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