The security measures of Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport once again came into question with a second gun went undetected in just a week.
On Friday (Mar 8), a passenger passed through the security check inside a domestic terminal without any alarms raised by the machine or the security officers, said airport sources.
Immediately afterwards, the passenger, Md Mamun Ali, declared carrying a licensed firearm and seven rounds.
He had tickets for a US-Bangla Airlines BS131 flight to Sylhet around 11am.
After passing the domestic terminal security measures at the airport, Mamun asked if he was clear to be boarded.
When the security officers said he was free to do so, Mamun retorted: “How could that be? I am carrying a gun!”
Soon after, the Aviation Security (Avsec) Director Nure Alam Siddique arrived and instructed the airlines to offload its passengers onboard.
However, Mamun Ali was able to board his flight later along with his licensed firearm, after taking the necessary approval from the airlines.
When asked about the incident, the Avsec director told the Bangla Tribune: “The passenger did not declare carrying firearm beforehand. However, once the securities were aware of the situation, they were able to take necessary measures.”
“In various circumstances, passengers do not declare carrying firearms beforehand, but are usually detected by the scanner machines while passing through,” he added.
Previously, the Airport security failed to detect film star Ilias Kanchan’s licensed firearm on Mar 5 and Md Palash’s toy gun with which he attempted to hijack a Dubai-bound Biman Bangladesh Airlines Flight BG-147 on Feb 24