Dozens of Biman Bangladesh passengers fail to board Malaysia flight following visa irregularities

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A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight bound for Malaysia departed Dhaka on Saturday night with 76 empty seats after a significant number of passengers failed to board the aircraft despite completing initial check-in procedures. The flight, designated BG-386, took off at approximately 8:30 p.m. carrying 212 passengers out of a total of 288 ticket holders.

According to airline sources, the discrepancy arose after immigration officials offloaded 10 passengers during the pre-departure security process. An additional five individuals were intercepted at the boarding gate after their documents were flagged. Following these incidents, another 61 passengers who had already secured their boarding passes failed to report to the boarding gate, prompting the aircraft to depart without them.

While official communication from Biman Bangladesh Airlines remained unavailable, with spokesperson Bosra Islam failing to respond to repeated requests for comment, reports suggest the incident may be linked to an organized human trafficking syndicate. Immigration police sources indicated that many of the passengers were attempting to travel to Malaysia for employment, raising concerns about the integrity of the document verification process.

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Standard protocol requires passengers to obtain boarding passes at airline counters before undergoing verification by immigration authorities, who are responsible for authenticating travel documents. However, security experts point to a breakdown in coordination between the airline and immigration services. Although immigration police possess the technology to detect fraudulent electronic visas, several passengers were initially issued boarding passes despite possessing counterfeit travel documents, only to have the fraud uncovered later at the boarding gate.

A senior official from the Special Branch of police, which manages immigration at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, confirmed that several individuals were detained after discrepancies were discovered between their passport data and visa information. Authorities are currently investigating how these passengers managed to bypass initial security checks, leading to suspicions of collusion.