- Saturday, July 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a shocking incident, a woman musician has alleged that she was instructed to remove her shirt during a security check at the airport in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru and called the experience “really humiliating”.
She made the complaint in a post from her Twitter account, which has now been deactivated.
Authorities at the Kempegowda International Airport said the issue has been raised with the operations and security teams.
The airport’s security is handled by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
In her tweet posted on Tuesday (3), the woman said, “I was asked to remove my shirt at Bengaluru airport during security check. It was really humiliating to stand there at the security checkpoint wearing just a camisole and getting the kind of attention you’d never want as a woman. @BLRAirport Why would you need a woman to strip?”
The post was deleted on Wednesday (4) morning and the account deactivated soon after.
The official Twitter handle of the airport said in response to the woman’s complaint that “this should not have happened” and sought her contact details so that they could reach out to her.
“We deeply regret the hassle caused and this should not have happened. We have highlighted this to our operations team and also escalated it to the security team managed by CISF (Central Industrial Security force) a Government sovereign,” it said in a reply on Twitter which has also been deleted now.
Problems during security checks at various airports in India have come under the scanner of late. With the lifting of travel restrictions after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the airports were swamped with tourists setting off for vacation.
Last month, the airports in Delhi and Bengaluru witnessed chaotic scenes as passengers complained of delays at immigration counters and inconvenience during security checks.
NDTV cited a source from the Bengaluru airport which said that the CISF is short-staffed.
“Bengaluru airport has no control over it. It’s the CISF who should manage it well. We have been lending support. The support can be given only to some extent. The CISF is short-staffed, and the immigration is managed by the central authorities,” the source said.
