Sherry Calls for Inquiry into Prevalence of Bogus Bomb Detectors
August 10, 2016, Islamabad: Following media reports regarding the prevalence of bogus bomb detectors in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Quetta carnage, Vice President PPP Senator Sherry Rehman called on the relevant ministries to wake up to the threat.
“There have been media reports of high-risk facilities employing fraudulent bomb detectors since the Jinnah International Airport attack of 2014 – two years on, the same devices are being used across the country with no evident action from the federal government,” said the Senator.
Rehman was referring to the successor of the bogus ADE-651 bomb detector manufactured and sold by, among others, the British businessman JamesMcCormick, now jailed along with his accomplices after being indicted in an investigation on the same.
Pakistan cannot afford this false sense of security
“According to the media reports, the Airport Security Force (ASF) is now manufacturing a version of the same bogus wands, which are being used at airports and government installations, as well as in public places like malls, hotels, and restaurants,” she noted. Rehman cited reports saying that despite being proven useless by experts including physicists, about 15,000 of the devices – dubbed “khoji” have been sold in Pakistan.
“In a country where the threat of a terrorist attack is always just around the corner, the authorities are tacitly, and as in the case of the ASF, directly, instilling a false sense of security. Pakistan cannot afford this false sense of security,” declared the Senator. “Such criminal negligence merits a thorough inquiry and heads to roll, while such useless equipment needs to be withdrawn from use.”
Such criminal negligence merits a thorough inquiry and heads to roll
“These bogus wands cost a whopping Rs70,000 each – is that the price of thousands of lives that we are now willing to pay?” concluded the Senator.
