$10,000 ‘stolen’ from luggage of traveller

Only $51 remained in his wallet which was kept inside his bag

RAWALPINDI:

In a unique incident of theft, a passenger was deprived of a huge sum of money during his air travel from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi.

Sources said that $10,000 were mysteriously stolen from the passenger's handbag who, upon his arrival in Abu Dhabi, was shocked to find out only 51 currency notes of one USD each in his wallet kept inside the bag.

Meanwhile, the administration of the Islamabad airport conducted an immediate inquiry on the complaint of the passenger's parents and showed them the CCTV footages of all the cameras installed at the airport, in which, it could be clearly seen that the bag remained with the passenger throughout his stay at the airport.

However, the mystery of whether the dollars were stolen during the air travel or the passenger’s arrival at Abu Dhabi could not be solved.

Abdullah Basharat, who was travelling to Abu Dhabi from Islamabad airport, in his video statement, said that he left Islamabad on September 16 by a private airline flight at 4am. He said he kept $10,000 in his travel bag along with the luggage and duly declared it at the counter.

“After declaring the amount, the bag remained with me all the time except only going through scanning machines twice,” he said and added that, upon arriving at the destination, he was shocked to find out that the amount was missing from the travel bag.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2022.