For inexplicable reasons, Bangladeshi security agencies today took a lenient view when they found an AK-47 rifle magazine in the carry-on baggage of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperative Adviser Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan when he was about to board a flight to Marrakesh, Morocco, to attend an Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting.
Documents and other information accessed by Northeast News show that Asif Mahmud, who uses a diplomatic passport (No. D00018185), was at the ninth boarding bridge for identification and security (INS) check when a scanning machine detected a large metallic object in his carry-on handbag.
Neither Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus nor Home Ministry Adviser Lieutenant General (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury have made any statement on the magazine’s discovery inside the premises of Shah Jala International Airport.
The security personnel manning the scanner politely instructed Asif Mahmud to hand over his bag for a security check. It was at this point that the magazine was pulled out of his bag. The official immediately called for security officers senior to him. Soon enough, Bangladeshi security officials intervened but only to allow Asif Mahmud to board the Turkish Airlines flight (No. TK-713) which took off at 7:08 am.
Three other officials and associates accompanied Asif Mahmud for the OIC meeting. They flew first to Istanbul before taking a connecting flight to Marrakesh.
Bangladesh security agency sources said that Asif Mahmud offered a lame excuse that he “forgot to remove” the magazine from the bag before packing and merely said he was sorry.
However, the Bangladeshi authorities committed a serious breach of security when they allowed Asif Mahmud’s personal secretary (Joint Secretary rank) Mohammad Abul Hassan to leave Dhaka’s Shah Jalal International Airport without being questioned, leave alone detained for intense interrogation.
Further inquiries by Northeast News revealed that Asif Mahmud’s carry-on baggage was neither put through the mandatory checking and security process when he entered the airport nor was this followed before he stepped into the VIP area.
This alarming episode points to an unmistakable conclusion: Asif Mahmud and most likely the other former students’ coordinators who spearheaded the violent movement against the Sheikh Hasina regime in July-August 2024 possessed or continue to possess high-bore weapons.
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“It is unlikely that the Directorate of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) does not know about the weapons and ammunition in the possession of the students’ coordinators. The entire chain of command in the DGFI and the police should now be investigated for their acts of omission and commission in this matter which has a bearing on national security,” a former DGFI chief said.
More importantly, the former DGFI head said, that an “investigation must be launched now to find out how the students’ coordinators possessed high-grade weapons that were used during the July-August uprising”.
