Another bomb threat at Dhaka airport in 24 hours, nothing suspicious found

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport received another bomb threat hours after a bomb scare on Wednesday, prompting a thorough search by the securities but nothing suspicious was found, say officials.

The second threat was sent to an APBn duty officer at the airport, via a WhatsApp message from a Malaysian number, on Wednesday night.

"A search was conducted throughout the airport which concluded at 2:30am on Thursday but nothing was found," said Group Captain Kamrul Islam, executive director of the airport, in a message sent to the media today (23 January).

"As per protocol, we are working in coordination with all agencies and tightened security." 

He added that all operations at the airport were running normally. "We request for no panic or additional news."

Earlier, in the early hours of Wednesday, the airport control room came to know about a bomb threat for Dhaka-bound Biman flight BG-356 from Rome.

The flight, carrying 250 passengers and 13 crew members, was safely evacuated and went to the terminal, said Captain Kamrul.

"As per protocol all baggage and items were checked, however, nothing suspicious was found," he said in a press statement. 

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the WhatsApp message claiming that a Dhaka-bound Biman flight from Rome was carrying explosives originated from a Pakistani phone number. The flight landed safely at HSIA on Wednesday.

DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media and Public Relations) Md Talebur Rahman said on Wednesday night that while the WhatsApp number was from Pakistan, they could not confirm the location from where the message was actually sent.