Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday night announced that the threat to bomb a Malaysian Airlines plane at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is finally unfounded, following a thorough search of passengers, their luggage and aircraft. HSIA Executive Director Group Captain AHM Tauheed-ul Ahsan told a news briefing after extensive security searches after midnight that the information we received on a phone call from Malaysia was baseless…nothing was found.
He said that the search operation was carried out by calling army commandos, bomb disposal units of the Air Force, Specialized Anti-Crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and various intelligence agencies and firefighters as per our SOP or standard operating procedure. Ahsan declined to identify the source of the caller, but said that while RAB received the call, subsequent exchanges with Malaysian officials and intelligence reports suggested that the aircraft had no such threat.
But, he said, thorough scanning of the cabin of the aircraft, bodies of passengers and their luggage was done to comply with the SOPs as it was a security concern for all. According to an airport official, there were 135 passengers on board, including 134 Bangladeshis and one Malaysian.
The aircraft made an emergency landing at HSIA at around 9.40 pm on Wednesday, ahead of which commandos and security agencies reached the spot, where firefighters and ambulances were put on alert. Airport officials had earlier said that the passengers were later disembarked after a thorough security check, while the plane was moved to a safe distance from the terminal area to scan the baggage and cabin of the passengers.
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