‘7 guns missing from airport cargo vault’
Staff Reporter :
At least seven firearms have reportedly disappeared from the strong room of the fire-damaged cargo complex at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, police have confirmed.
A general diary (GD) was lodged with the Airport Police Station on 28 October by Biman Bangladesh Airlines — the authority responsible for ground operations at the airport — after the vault was discovered broken. However, no formal case has yet been filed over the missing weapons, police said.
An official from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Uttara division said, “There were 21 firearms stored in the vault; 14 have been recovered while seven are still unaccounted for. The missing weapons include US-made M4 carbines and Brazilian-made Taurus pistols.”
The official could not specify which organisation owned the weapons.
He added, “The home ministry has already formed an investigation committee over the incident. We received a GD from Biman regarding the break-in, but no theft case has been registered so far.”
The GD was filed by Biman’s Assistant Manager (Security) Jamal Hossain on 28 October.
The incident comes on the heels of a massive fire that erupted at the airport’s import cargo complex on 18 October, which took firefighters around 27 hours to fully extinguish. The fire had already raised questions about the security of the Key Point Installation (KPI)-classified facility, and the subsequent theft has further intensified those concerns.
According to the GD, on 24 October at around 3:15pm, a team — including Customs Deputy Commissioner Niamul, Biman’s GM (Cargo) Nazmul Huda, National Security Intelligence (NSI) Additional Director Firoz Rabbani, and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Director Iftekhar — inventoried the goods and locked the vault with chains and official seals in everyone’s presence.
“On 27 October around 9:45pm, I, along with on-duty DMP and Ansar personnel, checked the seals and locks and found them intact. However, the next morning, around 7am, Biman security duty officer Jahangir Alam Khan informed me that the vault’s lock was missing. After alerting the DGM (Security), I went to the spot and found the vault door open,” Jamal Hossain stated in the GD.
Airport Police Station Officer-in-Charge Taslima Akter said, “Biman Bangladesh Airlines is responsible for the cargo complex and other internal installations within the airport premises. Our jurisdiction is limited to gate security.”
She added that while the home ministry’s committee is leading the probe, police are also conducting an inquiry based on the GD.
Biman’s General Manager (Public Relations) Tahera Khandaker said, “The matter is under investigation, and we cannot provide any official comment at this stage.”