Crowd complains of lax security at Jethro Tull concert

New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Security at the Jethro Tull and Anoushka Shankar concert was lax, complained many of those who thronged Pragati Maidan for the show, a day after the Mumbai terror trauma ended.

At the VIP Diamond Pass entrance Sunday evening, handbags were checked but security men did not frisk individual card-holders and those with media and sponsor passes, triggering fears that the porous entry process could jeopardise lives as it could facilitate entry of 'subversive elements' going by the recent turn of events in Mumbai.

'As the concert was sold out and there was such a rush at the gate, security should have been tighter. The fear psychosis is such that one cannot breathe easy anywhere,' said 40-year-old Aslam Sher Ali Khan, a Delhi-based businessman who came to the concert with his two children, wife, sister and brother-in-law.

There were barely four security personnel - men and women - at the VIP enclosure though several volunteers were posted at the entrance.

The other entry points were no better, those who attended the concert said.

A senior Delhi-based journalist, who attended the concert with friends, said security was 'shockingly lax'.

'There was almost no security at all. We stood in the queue to enter the stadium, but when we finally came to the entrance, the search was barely customary. There was no frisking at all. They looked at my bag for a split second,' said the journalist, a die-hard Jethro Tull fan.

Entry was divided into three categories- Diamond, Platinum and Gold cards.

The organisers, Seagram's 100 Pipers Pure Music, could not be contacted for comment.