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The Dhaka airport police has not been informed yet about the detection of a magazine containing bullets in a bag of LGRD and cooperatives adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while he was travelling to Morocco Sunday morning.

Asked about the incident,  airport police station officer-in-charge Taslima Akter said that they were not informed by the airport authorities over the incident till Monday afternoon.

‘The airport authorities usually inform us about any crime incident. We have not been informed yet about the incident,’ the police official said.

The incident of magazine detection drew widespread criticism and social media backlash.

HSIA executive director Ragib Hasan told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Monday that the magazine of a licensed pistol was detected in adviser Asif Mahmud’s hand bag during a scanning at the airport.  

‘We have handed the magazine over to the adviser’s private secretary, Abul Hasan,’ he added. 

Asif Mahmud is also the youth and sports adviser to the interim government.

The youth and sports adviser’s private secretary, Md Abul Hasan, could not be reached over phone for comment over the issue despite several attempts and he did not respond to text messages.

Home adviser retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam, however, after a meeting at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka on Monday told reporters that the local government, rural development and cooperatives adviser had mistakenly kept the magazine of his licensed pistol in his bag while he was travelling abroad.

About the speculation that Asif Mahmud was carrying a magazine of assault rifle AK-47, the home adviser said that it was not a magazine of AK-47 but of a licensed pistol in his possession. ‘It was just a mistake,’ he said.

Asked about a possible violation of the provision of minimum 30 years of age in obtaining arms licence, he said that he would not comment on it as he did not go through the law.

In response to a query how Asif Mahmud crossed two checkpoints with the magazine in his bag at the Dhaka airport, the home adviser said that as he is a leader, he received some extra privileges.

‘I told the airport authorities concerned not to give special privileges to anyone. All citizens would be treated equally,’ he added.    

Asked whether Asif Mahmud violated the arms rules, 2016, which has a provision of giving income tax of Tk 3 lakh for three consecutive years to obtain a personal licence for a pistol, the home adviser said that he was not aware of the provision.

Asif Mahmud was going to Morocco by a Turkish Airlines flight at 6:40am on Sunday to attend the Marrakesh Youth Capital 2025, according to officials at the HSIA and the Special Branch of the police.

A senior HSIA official on Sunday said that a magazine containing bullets was recovered from the LGRD adviser’s bag after it was detected during a scanning.

Asif Mahmud in a Facebook post Sunday night said that although he had kept the arms with a magazine at his house, another magazine mistakenly remained in the bag.

‘I had handed it over to my protocol officer after its detection in the scanning,’ he said, adding that ‘the incident was completely unintentional.’

He said that he possessed licensed arms for the sake of his security.

The adviser also said that the allegation of withdrawal of news on the incident by pressure was ‘completely false’.

Hours before the adviser’s Facebook post, LGRD ministry public relations officer Md Salauddin told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that ‘the news of carrying magazine is false’.