Bio-terror big on CBI's agenda

NEW DELHI: CBI sleuths, normally busy tracking criminals, corrupt public servants and solving murders, have a new assignment: Learn more about viruses, bacteria and disease-causing mutant microbes.
With the threat of bioterrorism growing bigger each day, the CBI is gearing up to keep pace with crimes of a newer kind, which are not covered under any legal framework in the country.The agency is also preparing to provide security cover to molecular and bio-technolology labs. It will mount surveillance on laboratories to prevent unscrupulous elements from letting lose deadly pathogens.
"With incidents of anthrax spores being found in mails, detection of pathogenic spores for mass destruction purposes in the Gulf and reports of synthesis of some of the eradicated strains of virus and bacteria doing rounds, we can no longer remain untouched," said CBI chief and director of Interpol India US Misra, who is participating in an international conference on bioterrorism, organised by Interpol in France.
Contamination of water bodies by unknown pathogenic spores or deliberate emission of the germs of small-pox virus, which have been eradicated from India, or of yellow fever, may cause a more severe impact than any other weapons, says Paresh Saxena, assistant director Interpol India. As the vast population is vulnerable to attacks from biological weapons, the concern in India is even more, since significant technological advancement has been attained in genetics.