BARC bomb hoax exposes loopholes in security set-up

The administration office at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) on Friday night received two bomb hoax calls after which the entire Thane rural police force and the CentralIndustrial Security Force (CISF) was put on high alert.

The incident exposed security lapses within the Tarapur facility that has the highly sensitive Tarapur Atomic Power station located nearby.

The caller, who still hasn’t been identified, called the direct landline of BARC site director Mohammed Afzal and claimed that there would be a blast in the BARC colony and the director could save the colony if he wished. The call was received by the personal assistant of the director and the caller hung up after he was asked to reveal his identity.

“We soon started nakabandis and increased the security with the help of CISF. We conducted checks within the colony with the dog and bomb squads and we think it was a hoax call. However, we are not taking any risks and are probing the case from all angles. The calls were traced to Mumbai,” said Shrikant Patil, senior police inspector, Tarapur police station.

“Since both theBARC and the Tarapur Atomic Power station are of national importance,it’s important that we have phone with caller ids at the offices. It seems that the person who made the call knew that the landline phone at the administrative office did not have a caller id facility,” Patil said.

“There were lot of security lapses in the plant and we have reviewed the same. We have given suggestions to the CISF and the local police to tighten the security,” said a senior police official.