A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel was shot dead and three others were injured at the international airport here on Wednesday night, police sources said.The trouble started when an Airport Authority of India (AAI) official entered a high security area of the airport around 9:30 p.m. and a CISF personnel on duty approached him to conduct a body search.Police sources said that an argument broke out between the two and the gun of the CISF personnel was forcibly taken away from him. In the melee, the gun went off and a bullet hit the CISF personnel, identified as Jaipal Yadav, who dropped dead. Three of Yadav's colleagues were also injured in the incident.
Following the incident, two flights were diverted to the Kochi airport as they did not get the security clearance after a group of employees began a protest on the runway.Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said he has asked the additional director general of police, N. Shankar Reddy, to reach the airport and has also ordered to deploy additional police force in the area. Sources said that confrontations between AAI staff and CISF personnel at the Kozhikode airport were a common thing. State director general of police T.P. Senkumar said the situation was under control.