This morning, the flight bringing Malaysians back to Bangladesh leaves

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered a special flight at 7.30 this morning from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 2 to bring back Malaysians from Bangladesh due to tensions in the country.

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, expects the AirAsia flight, using an Airbus A320 wide body or body-wide aircraft with a capacity of 350 passengers, to arrive at 9.20 a.m. (waktu tempatan).

The Secretary of the South Asia and Central Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mayor Dr. Shazelina Zainul Abidin, who headed the mission, said more than 100 Malaysians, including students, have been placed in the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka since yesterday.

“We have been planning this mission since July 12th, and we completed it in less than 12 hours.

“As soon as we received the ‘green light’ from our high commissioner in Bangladesh, we got the plane, but there was a little delay, and we couldn’t start yesterday because we were asked to wait to make sure our students arrived at our high commission in Dhaka,” he told Bernama.

A total of 15 officers from Wisma Putra, the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Council, and the Malaysian National News Organisation (Bernama) accompanied the mission.

The renowned representative who followed the mission, was Assistant Editor (General News Service) Nik Nurfaqih Nik Wil with photographer Muhammad Izzuddin Abd Radzak.

Yesterday, Anwar, when celebrating the 2024 National Tax Conference here, said the government decided to bring back Malaysian students in Bangladesh because of their safety, following the peak of tensions in the country.

He said it was a follow-up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ monitoring of the latest developments in Bangladesh.