RAWALPINDI, April 16: The Airport Security Force (ASF) on Monday took a passenger booked on an international flight into custody after discovering a pistol and five rounds in his baggage at the Islamabad airport, an official source said.

Sub-inspector Nasir Ali was operating a baggage scanning machine when he spotted a pistol in a suitcase while the check-in for the Kuwait Airways flight KV-206 was in progress.

The baggage containing the 30-bore pistol and five rounds was seized and a passenger identified as Shahbaz Ahmed, who was travelling with his family, was offloaded after he claimed the bag containing the weapon.

Later, the passenger was taken into custody and handed over to the local police.

During preliminary investigation, the passenger told the police that the firearm belonged to his uncle and it was put in his suitcase mistakenly.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Yasin Farooq handed down punishments to 16 police officials including four station house officers (SHOs) for showing poor performance.

Out of the 16 police officials, six policemen were posted at the RA Bazaar police station.

SI Mohammad Subtain, the in charge of Race Course chowki, was demoted to the rank of ASI and was served with two show-cause notices, while his two-year service was also forfeited.

Mr Subtain was charged with failing to arrest proclaimed offenders and not registering a case timely, a spokesman for the police said.

SI Gulzar Ahmed was demoted to the rank of ASI, while SI Shafqat Mehmood was served with censure notice and his one year service was also forfeited. ASI Saleh Mohammad, SI Mohammad Hayat and ASI Mohammad Aslam were served with censure notices.

SI Taseer Riaz of the Civil Lines police and ASI Zakiullah of the Westridge police were served with censure notices while their one-year service was also forfeited.

SI Abdul Qayyum of the Westridge police was issued a censure notice, while ASIs Mujtaba Haider Shah, Ghulam Mustafa, Mohammad Safdar and Azhar Mehmood were served with show-cause notices.

The spokesman said the station house officers (SHOs) of the Airport, RA Bazaar and Westridge police stations were issued warning notices for their poor performance.