Forex worth Tk 3cr seized at ZIA
Staff Correspondent
Customs officials seized foreign currencies equivalent to more than Tk 3.02 crore from a Dubai-bound flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at Zia International Airport (ZIA) early yesterday.An airport customs preventive team raided a toilet of the flight BG-029 at 12.05am following secret information that the currencies had been kept hidden inside the toilet. The currencies were wrapped in a piece of black cloth. "I stormed the aircraft with my force and recovered the currencies from a hole under the commode of a toilet following secret information," Airport Customs Preventive Superintendent Ashoke Barua, who led the drive, told The Daily Star yesterday. Customs officials said 17,30,000 Saudi Riyals, 44,000 UAE Dirhams and 4,000 Qatar Riyals were recovered in the raid. Sources at ZIA said it would be almost impossible to hide the currencies in the aircraft without some level of cooperation from Biman officials or employees. A source at ZIA said the toilet from where the currencies were recovered is for staff use only and the recovery had been made before the passengers boarded the aircraft. "So, it is certain that Biman officials and employees and people of the engineering corps who were repairing a mechanical fault in the aircraft have hands behind the smuggling," the source said. Customs sources said they had earlier seized large consignments of smuggled gold, drugs, and currencies several times from inside toilets of aircrafts but the Biman authorities did not take any measure in this regard. Chairman of National Board of Revenue Khairuzzaman Chowdhury visited ZIA following the recovery and discussed the matter with the managing director of Biman. Customs officials had seized Saudi Riyals worth about Tk 64 lakh from a Dubai-bound passenger of Biman at ZIA on July 17 last year and Euros, Hong Kong and US dollars, and Chinese and Bangladeshi currencies worth about Tk 27.57 lakh were seized from a Hong Kong bound passenger at the same airport on March 18 last year. Two passengers were arrested in connection with the two incidents. While visiting the airport yesterday NBR chairman told reporters that customs officials had filed several cases in connection with such recoveries, which are not yet settled.
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