Last week's bombings at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore have set off an intense debate on the safety of India's sports venues.
Intelligence and security experts responsible for securing the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi have told The Hindu there are grave concerns over bomb threats to high-profile venues like the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, which will host the opening ceremonies, as well as the roads leading to them.
Pressed for manpower, the Delhi police have been unable to maintain a watch on workers and trucks carrying material into construction venues. Integrated-circuit timers, which have been deployed with increasing frequency by jihadist groups, can be programmed to detonate up to a year after they are planted —demonstrating the need for better security at construction sites.
Last month, the Central Industrial Security Force was asked to assist in screening construction sites but declined, evidently reluctant to take responsibility for security failures that took place before it was assigned responsibility.
Few stadia hosting Indian Premier League matches, government sources said, have clearly laid-down procedures to sanitise the venue or evacuate tens of thousands of spectators in the event of a crisis.
Major lapses
Security sources in New Delhi say that there were potentially disastrous security failures in Bangalore in the course of Saturday's attacks in Bangalore. First, while Bangalore police officials say a full anti-sabotage check was carried inside the stadium in the spectators area, it remains unclear if there was enough time to do a thorough job.
What is clear is that the police did not check the periphery of the stadium where the bombs were planted. No official explanation has been offered for how police failed to detect the improvised explosive devices, which were packaged inside easily-visible blue-and-yellow wrapping held together with twine.
The devices made of ammonium nitrate explosive material, similar to those used by the Indian Mujahideen during a series of urban bombings between 2005 and 2008, malfunctioned due to high humidity. In two cases, police sources said, the devices only failed to explode because of faulty wiring and a malfunctioning detonator.
Worrying
More worrying, senior officials say, was Bangalore police commissioner Shankar Bidari's decision to allow the match to proceed even after two bombs went off — a decision evidently taken with the conviction that the inside of the stadium was safe. “The fact that explosions had taken place on the periphery of the stadium,” a senior police official told The Hindu , “meant that all was not well with security, and that bombs could have been planted in the audience as well. An evacuation was clearly called for once the two bombs exploded — but there seems to have been no preparation for an emergency evacuation.”
Each venue, one official linked to the conduct of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi said, also needed to have a well-laid down evacuation drill which would allow for the vacation of a stadium in half an hour or less. “You need drills like this not just to cope with terrorist attacks,” the official said, “but other situations like a fire, or just mob violence”. Private security guards had been extensively deployed inside the stadium, but do not appear to have been trained in conducting an emergency evacuation either.
Interestingly, the Union government is contemplating legislation which would allow private security companies a greater role in protecting vulnerable public facilities like sports venues, hotels, and shopping complexes. Government sources said the new law would allow private security guards to carry weapons. However, concerns have been raised about the lack of training and safety standards at private security companies — concerns the Bangalore attack has underlined.
Diffused responsibility
“Part of the problem,” one official at the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi said, “is that there is no single-point authority responsible for security at sports venues. The police have a role. Private security guards have a role. The organisers have their own agenda. In the end, there is no one person who can be held to account if something goes wrong.”
“Governments need to get more serious about security,” the official said, “but private companies are also making millions out of sport — and they need to be compelled to spend some of that on making sure fans are safe.”
India's poor sports-security management stands in stark contrast with China, where each stadium used for the Beijing Olympic Games was designed and built in consultation with security and emergency experts. By 2005, Beijing had put in place a comprehensive security plan, and a central control room, to monitor security. Intelligence services and independent experts from across the world — including India — were repeatedly invited for consultations.
