Bangladesh Trial Report:

A court has granted one-day remand for questioning Jamaat-e-Islami leader Major (Retd) Akhtaruzzaman in a case filed over alleged disorder at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport amid a shortage of luggage trolleys and allegations of obstructing government officials in the discharge of their duties.

On Saturday (October 3), Sub-Inspector Majedul Islam of Dhaka Airport Police Station produced the accused before the court and sought a five-day remand. After a hearing in the afternoon, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Albiruni Mir granted one-day remand.

SI Abu Bakkar Siddique of the Prosecution Division confirmed the matter.

The remand petition said the accused disclosed his name and address during questioning. It alleged that with the intention of achieving an ulterior motive, he obstructed government employees from performing their duties at the sensitive Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, threatened and intimidated them, and assaulted one of them, thereby disrupting normal discipline and security at the airport.

As a result, the normal arrival of passengers returning from abroad was disrupted, the petition said.

It further stated that it was necessary to determine whether any vested group had instigated such activities inside the airport with the intention of damaging Bangladesh’s image. The accused needed to be questioned extensively and thoroughly in this regard, but adequate questioning had not been possible due to the limited time available.

For the sake of a proper and impartial investigation, the petition sought five days of police remand to question the accused extensively and thoroughly about the incident.

Akhtaruzzaman was arrested on October 2 from his residence at House 35 on Road 10 in the Dhamalkot area near the cantonment in the capital.

Case Details

According to the case statement, 34 representatives of Jamaat-e-Islami arrived in Dhaka from Medina with their families on October 1. Their flight landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:55am and was parked at 9:08am. The passengers then entered the terminal through Gate 21, completed immigration procedures and went to the area around Baggage Belt 8 to collect their luggage.

At the time, there was a temporary shortage of trolleys due to an unusually high volume of arriving passengers, resulting in a long queue for trolleys. Several protocol assistants allegedly attempted to collect trolleys by violating the queue.

Later, some individuals allegedly became agitated and behaved in an unruly manner over delays in the arrival of luggage and the non-arrival of Zamzam water.

At one point, Dhaka-5 MP Mohammad Kamal Hossain called Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Executive Director Group Captain S M Ragib Samad to the scene. When the executive director arrived and was speaking to those concerned about the situation, Major (Retd) Akhtaruzzaman allegedly suddenly approached him in an aggressive manner and began using extremely rude, abusive and offensive language.

Although the executive director calmly tried to explain the situation regarding the pressure of excess passengers and trolley management at the airport, Akhtaruzzaman allegedly became more agitated and publicly said, “I’ll beat you up,” “Get out from here,” “I’ll drag you out by the neck,” “You don’t know how to do your job; you got this posting through lobbying,” and “Do you want to get beaten?”

According to the case statement, Akhtaruzzaman’s behaviour at the time was highly aggressive and confrontational.

Fearing further deterioration of the situation, Mohammad Kamal Hossain moved the executive director to a safe distance. Akhtaruzzaman allegedly became agitated again and threatened those present, saying, “All of you should be tied up and beaten at the airport and the video should be posted on social media so that Tarique Rahman can see it; then you will behave. I’ll throw you out by pushing you by the neck.”

He also allegedly used extremely abusive and insulting language against the minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, saying, “He is a bastard, he is doing nothing for the airport.”

Meanwhile, some protocol assistants accompanying Akhtaruzzaman allegedly recorded videos of the incident and threatened to make them viral on social media, creating concerns that the airport’s security and discipline could deteriorate further.

Warrant Officer Mohammad Kamal Uddin, a security supervisor on duty at the scene, asked the individuals concerned not to record videos in the airport’s Key Point Installation (KPI) area. At that point, Major (Retd) Akhtaruzzaman allegedly approached him, verbally abused him and eventually physically assaulted him.

Later, when a representative of Biman Bangladesh Airlines arrived at the scene, Akhtaruzzaman allegedly behaved in an unruly and aggressive manner towards him as well.

He also allegedly threw bottles/containers of Zamzam water collected by other passengers from a trolley, causing damage.

The case statement alleges that through these actions, Akhtaruzzaman obstructed government officials and security personnel performing their duties at a sensitive KPI facility such as Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, threatened and intimidated them, publicly used abusive language, behaved aggressively and physically assaulted a security official on duty.

Following the incident, airport security officer Md Shahriar Alam Sajib filed the case against him with Airport Police Station.