Special flight departs to evacuate M’sians from Bangladesh

 

A total of 15 personnel from Wisma Putra, the Prime Minister’s Department, the National Security Council and Bernama are involved in the mission to bring back Malaysians in strife-torn Bangladesh. (Bernama pic)

SEPANG: 

A special flight under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s directive to bring back Malaysians in strife-torn Bangladesh departed from KLIA Terminal 2 at 7.30am today.

The AirAsia flight, which utilises an Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft capable of accommodating 350 passengers, is expected to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 9.20am (local time).

The foreign ministry’s South and Central Asia division undersecretary Shazelina Zainul Abidin, who is leading the mission, said that over 100 Malaysians, including students, had taken shelter at the Malaysian high commission in Dhaka since yesterday.

“This evacuation mission has been planned since July 12 and is expected to take less than 12 hours.

Once we got the green light from our high commissioner in Bangladesh, we secured the aircraft, but there was a slight delay because we were asked to wait to ensure that our students reached our high commission in Dhaka,

 she told Bernama.

The evacuation flight is expected to depart for Malaysia from Dhaka at 10am (local time) and arrive at KLIA Terminal 2 at around 4.20pm.

A total of 15 personnel from Wisma Putra, the Prime Minister’s Department, the National Security Council and Bernama are involved in the mission.

Yesterday, the prime minister reportedly said that the government had decided to bring back all Malaysians in Bangladesh due to security concerns following escalating tensions in the country.

He said the decision followed the foreign ministry’s monitoring of recent developments in Bangladesh. - FMT