Police officer arrested for boarding flight without passport at Dhaka airport

A police officer has been arrested for entering an aircraft at the Dhaka airport without passport or visa.

Immigration officials handed over Sub-Inspector Ashiqur Rahman to Dhaka police, said Shahjalal International Airport Director Kazi Iqbal Karim.

“It is unfortunate to see a police official acting this way,” Karim told reporters on Sunday.

Rahman was uniformed and went into the TG-340 flight of Thai Airways to meet a relative, an immigration officer told bdnews24.com.

Law enforcers detained him after the immigration department informed them, he said.

Rahman told the immigration officials that he needed to get inside the plane to probe something, said the officer requesting anonymity.

“Later he was discovered inside the aircraft which was due to take off at 2am. The captain refused to take off citing possible dangers of carrying a passenger having no travel documents.”

“The aircraft finally took off an hour later, after civil aviation and airport authorities stepped in.”

Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamum, a DIG for Dhaka Range police, said: “We will penalise Ashiqur as per the civil aviation authorities’ recommendations.”

SI Rahman, a resident of Gopalganj, was transferred to the Police Bureau of Investigation or PBI recently.

A Thai Airways official said: “The incident needs to be investigated. Security measures must be tightened.”

On Sunday, the UK lifted a ban on direct air cargo from Dhaka.

The ban was removed after Bangladesh met several “important” security conditions.

Shahjalal airport Director Iqbal Karim has expressed disappointment over the incident.

“I would recommend strict punishment for him. This uncalled-for incident came a day before the UK ban was lifted.”