Airport anti-terrorist exercise leaves panic

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Monday October 25, 2010 00:00

 

An eye witness told Monitor that immediately after alighting from their inbound plane, they were told to wait by the tarmac, as there was a security scare inside the airport.

'Then we heard gunshots fired. So far I have heard conflicting statements. Some say it was an exercise whilst others say it was a real terrorist incident.

No authority has come forward to communicate with us and tell us exactly what is going on,' he said.

Another young woman, who did not want to be named, says she saw the 'terrorists' as they came into the airport terminal. It was a group of men and a woman clad in a red tracksuit, brandishing AK47s.

'They came inside blocking the entrance and started shooting. It was quite scary. Everyone inside, fell down and lay prostate on the ground after the 'terrorists' instructed us. And now am told they were on an exercise. Why ba tshameka ka matshaelo a rona? (Why are they playing with our lives?' she said.

Relating his eyewitness account, Ronald Molosiwa who was at the airport to pick someone says he was shocked when upon arrival he met police officers blocking the entrance into the airport.

Then he saw a lot of police vehicles moving in circles.

'They looked confused. Some officers even said someone was seen brandishing a gun. Police helicopters hovered atop. I was alarmed and rushed inside to ensure that the person I had came to pick up was not hurt. By then reinforcements of police and Botswana Defence Force officers had came. I also saw some people with balaclavas,' he said.

When pressed for comment Sir Seretse Khama International Airport police station commander King Tshebo said no terrorists were involved. It was an exercise  'by some people. At the moment I am trying to assess the damage done in the process. Few people have been hurt because of the panic,' he said.

When asked if he had prior knowledge of this exercise, the police chief said he never knew about it and added that he was trying to establish who staged it.

Also seen at the incident was Directorate of Intelligence Services director-general Isaac Kgosi who told a battery of journalists that the exercise is a joint operation of the DIS, BDF and police to see the readiness of people, the police and other security agents to deal with a terrorist threat.

The exercise, a staged operation that had the bad guys-terrorists and the security agents was launched at six am in the morning, when a group of 'terrorists' came to the airport and demanded that they be given a plane to fly out of the country. This was a good test to see how the police and others will react to a hostage situation, he said.

'No one was told in advance. I received calls and SMSes informing me that planes have been grounded. There was confusion,' he said.

When Monitor wanted to know if indeed live bullets were used in the staged drama, Kgosi said: 'Yes, but some were blanks. But no one was shot at all,' he said.

But who will bear the costs of flights missed during the course of this drama, especially for people who had connecting flights?

'Everything was communicated with the Air Traffic Control people, so I don't think any flight was affected, unless if there were a few people who were scared and ran away and missed their departing flights,' he said.