ISLAMABAD, July 24: Unauthorized boarding of prime minister’s aeroplane by an employee of the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, moments before the plane had started taxiing for the return flight to Islamabad, led to security alert and evacuation of the jet.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was in Kabul on Sunday for a one-day visit to discuss trade, investment and security issues with President Hamid Karzai.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told this reporter here that the person had been identified as an employee of Pakistan embassy in Kabul.
However, he refused to speculate on the motives of the bearded, unwanted passenger on board the premier’s jet, and described it as a minor incident.
The other version of the episode is that the passenger had himself pointed him out to the PM’s staff, saying he had entered the plane to deliver the luggage of members of the premier’s delegation and before he could get out the doors were closed.
He was briefly interrogated inside the plane by the PM’s security staff before being off-loaded. The suspect was then quizzed by the Afghan authorities as well.
However, one of the high officials accompanying the prime minister requested for a security check of the aircraft. The plane was accordingly evacuated and the luggage searched.
The aircraft took off after getting clearance.
APP adds: A government spokesman on Sunday termed reports of a “suspicious man” jumping out of PM’s aircraft in Kabul “absolutely incorrect”.
“The man in question is a regular employee of Pakistan embassy in Kabul and could not leave the plane in time, as the stairs had already been removed from the aircraft,” he said.
The spokesman also described reports of some “suspicious luggage” being found in the aircraft as “totally baseless”.
