KARACHI, Feb 26: A gang of thieves operating inside the international airports of Karachi and Islamabad have been found to be involved in stealing valuables from checked-in suitcases, with none of the three stakeholders — the Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan International Airlines and Airports Security Force — demonstrating any desire to nab them.

At least four cases in which expensive items were taken out from suitcases have been detected in recent weeks when passengers found out that their bags had been either ripped open or damaged before being put on the conveyor belt.

The latest incident occurred on Monday when a passenger travelling from Karachi noticed on arrival at the Islamabad airport that the zip of her suitcase was in pieces, and the bag had been tied with a string. Much to her horror, she discovered that not only her stuff was rummaged through by someone, but also a pouch full of jewellery was missing.

“I boarded PK364 from Karachi to Islamabad, and checked in one soft bag and a carton. Upon reaching Islamabad, when the porter put my bag on the trolley I saw that the zip of my bag was broken as was the lock,” she said. “On lodging the complaint with the PIA staff at the lounge, I was asked to open the bag and check the contents. As feared, my jewellery pouch was missing,” she said.

Treating it as a routine matter all that the PIA official did was to take a written complaint. However, privately he said the incident must have occurred at the Karachi airport and that she should try and pursue the matter at that end.

The nonchalance of the PIA staff notwithstanding, this may well be the case. Some officials at the Karachi airport said the only people who were in a position to know what was inside a locked suitcase were the ASF staff manning the scanning machine at the entrance of the terminal. One of them said if an organised gang was operating at the airport, some ASF personnel must be linked to those PIA or airport loaders who handled the checked luggage.

However, he said if the CAA, PIA and ASF top officials decided to track down such a gang, all they needed to do was to find out who was on scanning duty between 3pm and 3.30pm on Monday when this particular bag was scanned, and then find with their help a thief among those who handled the bags before they were loaded on the plane.

Not being sure if such an action would be taken, the rude advice to the affected passenger by a PIA official at the Islamabad airport was that in future she should carry such valuables on person rather than putting them in a suitcase.