The Cabinet Division has formed a four-member probe committee to investigate into the travelling of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines pilot without passport to Qatar and negligence of immigration officials at the Hazrat Shahzalal International Airport (HSIA) in this regard.
The committee will also find out loopholes of the working system of the Department of Immigration and Passports, according to a letter issued by the Cabinet Division on Friday.
The committee has been asked to submit its report to the secretary of the Cabinet Division within three working days.
On Wednesday, Captain Fazal Mahmud Chowdhury, the pilot of a Biman Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, flew from Dhaka’s HSIA to Doha to bring Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back home after her tri-nation official visit.
But the pilot was reportedly detained by the immigration authority at the Hamad International Airport in Qatar while travelling to Doha without a passport.
Later in the day, the Biman authorities sent the pilot's passport to Doha in order to bring him back.
Meanwhile, the immigration police will suspend one of its officials for allowing a pilot of the national flag carrier to cross immigration without the passport, according to insiders.
Additional Secretary Nasima Begum of the Cabinet Division will act as the convener of the committee while Joint Secretary (political-1) M Jahangir Alam of the Security Services Division of the Home Ministry will act as the member secretary.
Home Ministry's security services division Joint Secretary (political-4) M Helal Mahmud Sharif and Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry's Joint Secretary Mustakim Billah Faruki are the members of the committee.
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Sources at immigration police said they have already interrogated four to five people and analyzed the CCTV footages of the airport.
Immigration officials alleged that the pilot did not cooperate with the immigration officials while the on-duty immigration officer was relaxed as the pilot was going abroad to carry the premier minister home, they said.
Mohammad Shahriar Alam, superintendent of police of the Special Branch of Immigration Police, on Friday said the investigation was almost at the final stage.
However, Captain Fazal Mahmud said everyone was on festive mood as the day he boarded the plane was the Eid day.
“If the immigration people had asked for my passport, I would not have made the mistake,” he added.
The pilot claimed that he was not held by the immigration authorities in Doha as reported in different media.
Home ministry forms another probe body
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has formed another four-member probe committee, headed by its additional secretary of security services division Mohammad Azharul Haque to investigate into the incident.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within seven days, said Additional Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty of the Home Ministry's Security Services Division, on Friday.
