– Muktadir Rashid
A total of 418 British and Turkish nationals left Dhaka on special flights while 259 Bangladeshis arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Maldives, India, and Turkey on Tuesday.
Over 300 US citizens were scheduled to fly at about 6:30pm, but the airport officials could not confirm their departure till 8:30pm.
Airport director Group Captain AHM Tauhid-Ul Ahsan said that the airport authorities were not sure about the reason for the delay.
Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh assistant director Mohammad Sohel Kamruzzaman said that 254 British and their 10 infants flew on a charter flight of British Airways at about 4:05pm while 154 Turkish nationals flew on their national carrier at about 1:10pm.
With the latest departure, at least 6,944 foreign nationals or permanent residents, mostly British, US, Canadian, Australian, Japanese, Malaysian, Bhutanese and different European countries, have left Dhaka since March 23, Bangladesh immigration officials said.
Tauhid said that C-130J transport aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force arrived at Dhaka airport at 5:25pm with 70 Bangladeshis from Maldives.
Sohel said that 20 Bangladeshis arrived on Turkish Airways earlier on Tuesday from Tukey while 164 passengers and 5 infants arrived in Dhaka on a flight of US-Bangla at about 3:15pm from Indian city Chennai.
He also said that arrival passengers would be dealt by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research on whether they would be taken to institutional quarantine or home quarantine.
The US-Bangla Airlines is continuing such flights from Chennai for the same purpose since Monday.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines, meanwhile, on Tuesday announced that it would operate a special flight from New Delhi to bring back stranded Bangladeshi citizens on Friday.
Biman’s managing director and chief executive officer Md Mokabbir Hossain said as per the government’s decision, Biman would operate a special flight from Delhi to bring back 162 Bangladeshi nationals.
The chief of the national flag carrier said intending Bangladeshi nationals can purchase tickets for the flight from Biman’s mobile app or website from Tuesday noon till 2:00pm on April 23.
A good number of Bangladesh nationals have already returned home from Kolkata, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and other border areas with the support of Bangladesh missions there.
On April 3, the foreign ministry issued a statement, saying that nearly 2,500 Bangladeshi citizens, including 1,000 students, were stranded in India due to COVID-19 outbreak. Courtesy : New Age
