A total of 320 gold bars weighing 37 kilograms and valued at TK 150 million were seized from a Qatar Airways flight that had landed at the airport around 6am.
Customs Assistant Commissioenr Madhab Biswas Debroy told bdnews24.com this was one of the biggest seizure of the illegally smuggled precious metal in Bangladesh in recent months.
The gold bars were found under two seats - 41 A and 41 D -- of the flight.
"They were neatly packed in cloth with black tapes", Debroy said.
A Sri Lankan cabin crew informed authorities suspecting the packets to be a bomb, said Alamgir Hossain, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Armed Police Battalion (APBn).
But no arrests have been made so far in connection with the seizures, he said.
It seems the passenger(s) who brought in this huge quantity of gold seem(s) to have got away, at least for the moment.
Several such hauls have been made in both Dhaka and Chittagong airports in recent months.
On Nov 2, a total of 41 gold bars were seized from the two airports within a span of two hours.
Then again, on Oct 29-30, 164 bars weighing 20 kilograms were seized.
Nearly 30kg gold was found in the toilet of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Dubai on Oct 22.
On Oct 1, 14 gold bars were seized from a Doha flight that landed at Chittagong’s Shah Amanat Airport.
In Aug, 156 gold bars weighing 18 kg were seized from a sports bag in Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport.