Airport mystery: ‘Stowaway’ boy laid to rest by his family
The funeral was held after his body was exhumed from the Miani Sahab Graveyard where he had been buried by the police after initial attempts to identify the body failed. On Thursday, he was buried at the Mominpura graveyard, near his residence.
Muhammad Siddique, Qasim’s father, blamed airport authorities for his son’s death. “How could have my son entered a restricted area of the airport unless he was escorted?” he said while talking to The Express Tribune. Siddique said that he had been interrogated by airport authorities on January 18. “They kept asking me how Qasim had entered the airport,” the upset father said. He called the authorities “careless and ignorant” and held them responsible for the security lapse. “They knew about the breach the day this incident happened but they are still denying that there was a security lapse,” Siddique said. He alleged that the Airport Security Force (ASF) was trying to cover up its failure by not admitting that Qasim had fallen from the landing gear.
Jamshed Ahmad, the father of Ali Jamshed – Qasim’s friend who is still missing – alleged that his child was in the custody of the Airport Security Staff. “My son had never mentioned any desire for going abroad,” Ahmad said, adding, “My kid is not the kind of person who would commit such an act of ignorance.” Ahmad said that he had been told by someone that the two boys had entered the airport through Gate no 4. Police officials were given the CCTV footage on Thursday as well, a day after they were given access to the audio recording of conversation between the pilot of the plane and the control tower. Investigation in charge, SI Syed Zahid Hussain, told Tribune that police officials had not yet analysed either evidence. Zahid denied having information that Ali and Qasim entered the airport from gate No4. He said that it was too early to make a statement in this regard.
Police officials familiar with the investigation told Tribune that it had been established that the boys entered airport premises after crawling under the surrounding fence. “We found thorns on Qasim’s jacket [on January 13] that match the plants that grow around the air strip,” one official said. They also claimed that this was not the first time airport security had been breached, “Two other people were caught inside airport premises.” One of them added, “Stray dogs are known to have made their way to quite close the air strip. If the dogs can make their way through the fence, so can a man.”
The police officials also expressed their surprise at the two boys managing to get past 20 posts, with four guards each.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2011.
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