How could 55 kg gold be stolen amid the airport’s tight security?

Bangladesh has turned into a veritable land of thefts now.

Banks are being looted one after another.

Public funds are stolen from the mega projects with more budget allocation than is necessary.

This time more than 55 kg of gold worth Tk 48 crore was stolen from a locker in the customs warehouse at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport creating a sensation among the people.

Surely, this theft from a secure place inside the terminal building could not have been possible without the involvement of people at the customs warehouse or the insiders of the airport itself.

Interestingly, though the theft occurred earlier and came to the notice of Dhaka Customs Department on Saturday, it was announced a day later.

A five-member investigation committee headed by a joint commissioner was formed by the Customs Department.

If the past experiences are anything to go by, a probe report would be submitted as a routine, but it would not be possible to recover the stolen gold and the thieves could be punished.

The stolen gold was reportedly recovered between 2020 and 2023 and kept in one of the two lockers in the Customs Department inside the Shahjalal International Airport.

The question has arisen as to why gold was kept there for such a long time.

According to the norm, once smuggled gold is recovered from the airport, it is seized and sent to the vault of Bangladesh Bank as soon as possible.

Why could this not have been done regarding the stolen gold? It has also been guessed that all the 55 kg gold was not stolen at a time, but at different times.

It has to be also kept in mind that if the authorities take the matter seriously, it should not be that difficult to find out the culprits.

The question is if the theft would be taken seriously. First of all, all areas inside the airport are kept under round-the-clock security with CCTV surveillance.

The entire airport is staffed by several government agencies including the Civil Aviation Authority, law enforcement agencies as well as various intelligence agencies.

While there is no dearth of allegations against the airport management and travellers often complain about unnecessary harassment on the pretext of security checking and bribe, the theft of gold from the locker amid so much security has also called into question the security of the airport which is a nationally important Key Point Installation (KPI).

This is more serious than the worth of the stolen gold itself.