Four 'adventurous' madrasa students trespass at Belagavi airport

Belagavi/Bengaluru, Oct 15: Four students of a madrasa were detained for trespassing on the runway of the Belagavi airport and moving around suspiciously on Friday.

Police released the students after it emerged that they had set out on an adventure, and the madrasa's principal gave an undertaking that the incident would not recur.

A total of 12 students, aged 18-22, climbed the airport's eight-foot-high steel wire fence which runs parallel to the compound wall and ventured near the runway in the high-security zone.

The incident happened around 10.30 am, more than an hour before the scheduled arrival of a SpiceJet flight from Bengaluru, official sources said. Personnel of the Karnataka State Industrial Security Force (KSISF), which is in charge of security at the airport, were caught unawares.

They managed to detain four students but others escaped. Those detained were identified as Shaikh Sameer, 20, from Hyderabad, Bandenawaz Jamadar, 19, of Bagalkot, Toufiq, 19, and Babul, 18. They are all students of a madrasa at Pant-Balekundri village near the airport, around 13 km from Belagavi city centre, the sources said.

The detained students didn't possess any mobile phones. The madrasa's principal, Mohammad Saleem Walikar, visited the jurisdictional Marihal police station and confirmed that the youths were students of the religious school.

He gave an undertaking that such an incident would not recur. The students were later released, Belagavi Police Commissioner T G Krishna Bhatta said.

The madrasa has around 200 students. With Friday being the weekly holiday for the madrasa, the students had set out on an adventure and trespassed on the airport.

The airport's compound wall cuts access to an approach road to farm fields and housing colonies of Honnihal, Balekundri, Modaga, Mavinkatti and Pant-Balekundri villages.

The villagers are opposed to the construction of the compound wall, saying it deprived them of the approach road.

Shepherds graze their sheep on the airport premises while inquisitive youths often watch planes land and take off as they hover above their head.

Security tightened

Friday's incident initially alarmed security officials as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was to arrive in Bengaluru in the afternoon.

Not taking any chances, the Bengaluru police have tightened security in and around the Kempegowda International Airport and the HAL?airport.

Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P?Harishekharan said that the jurisdictional DCP and ACPs had been instructed to carry out intense patrolling and sabotage checks and look out for suspicious movements. Airport authorities have been directed to thoroughly frisk the passengers, he said.

Mohammad Hussain Ali Qureshi, a resident of Kalaburagi, was arrested on December 3, 2015, after he was found to be filming the Belagavi airport. His camera also had pictures and videos of other locations.