Security has beefed up at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong after intelligence agencies warned of possible sabotage attempts.
At the Shahjalal Airport, restrictions were imposed on the entrance of visitors while additional security officials – both uniformed and plainclothes – were deployed. Passengers, their luggage and vehicles moving in were also brought under surveillance.
Wing Commander Zakir Hossain, director of the airport, said, “These measures have been taken on grounds of public security, considering the existing situation in the country.”
“Although we have no specific security threats, we are taking precautions so that any attempt to subvert in-place security mechanisms could be thwarted.”
The restriction would remain in force for “a certain period of time” and would be lifted once the situation returned to normal, he added.
Sources at the airport said the restriction had been imposed after a multipartite meeting on Wednesday attended by high officials from Rab, police, BGB, Ansar and other security and intelligence agencies.
In this regard, Assistant Superintendent Shoyeb Ahmed of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn), which ensures security at airports, said they were instructed to not allow any kind of visitors inside, including friends and family members of outbound passengers.
As part of precautionary measures, he added, the number of regular and plainclothes officials had been increased and security check-posts installed at different points of the airport.
In addition, special passes were issued for the airport officials and employees.
These measures were taken apparently in response to the increasing security threats at the country’s communication sectors, including acts of sabotage damaging more than 20 railway engines, 100 bogies and several hundred buses, trucks and other types of vehicles.
These acts and the ensuing casualties called for heightened security at the airports, sources said.
Meanwhile, security has also been heightened at the Shah Amanat International Airport with the deployment of additional police, Rab and Ansar forces within the airport premises.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Mostak Ahmed of Chittagong Metropolitan Police confirmed the news and said no one except passengers and airport staff was being allowed into the airport.
“Police have received information that miscreants might undertake subversive activities at the airport.”
Security officials are regularly searching various sections of the airport while passengers, their luggage and the airport staff were all under surveillance, he added.
On Saturday, Sahabuddin, 27, an employee of private airline United Airways, was arrested after he set off a crude bomb at the airport’s VIP car parking area.