Revamp Security at ZIA
Suspension of some Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) officials and employees following the death of a stowaway in the wheel carriage of a British Airways aircraft bears, in our view, a positive message - the people at the helm are concerned over the recurrent security leakage at ZIA. We appreciate the CAAB move and hope that their efforts towards plugging security leakage at the airport will not end here. In our country, it often happens that, inquiries lose way once the hue and cry upon revelation of gross irregularities die down. As the citizen loses interest and flow of newspaper reports comes down to a trickle, the inquisitors, it seems, find a pretext not to progress further. The end result is, more often than not, a premature end of the affair. The flaw remains only to surface with the loss of one life or two. It must stop before such indifference leads to deaths of hundreds on an aircraft. The authorities should weigh the report and the suggestions set forth by the probe committee into Saturday's death of a young man in the wheel carriage, and take measures accordingly.
There have been allegations of an organised group within the airport officialdom abetting in such breaches of security. Unemployed and unfortunate people like Junaid or Mahbub who died in Jeddah in a similar fashion are talked into it with the lure of a secured and solvent future overseas. Desperate and thus gullible, they take the risk. These allegations should not be brushed aside, no matter how ludicrous they may sound to some people. Until and unless the authorities eliminate such possibilities, the matter would some day lead to a disaster. We hope the authorities realise this more than anybody else and would do everything in their power to stave off another mishap like that.
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