Two Sri Lankan nationals rushed out of the airport after abandoning the baggage on Friday, while another was offloaded from the aircraft and secured. One of the bags contained just a brick.
Explaining the sequence of events, airport sources said around 11 a.m. three Sri Lankan nationals came to board the Colombo-bound Jet airways flight 9W-232. One of them, Mohammadu Salauddin Mohammadu Fawusi (41), completed his immigration and other formalities and boarded the aircraft.
Two others came afterwards. As they approached the Jet airways counter, security personnel wanted to check their suitcase and asked them to open it.
They refused and moved away, abandoning their baggage. One of them was identified as Abdul Ameed Mohammed Assan (51) as he had left his passport with the airline staff.
The airline staff immediately alerted CISF personnel who, in turn, informed the Bomb Detection Disposal Squad (BDDS) of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
When the BDDS authorities opened the suitcase, they found another small suitcase, which was found to contain another smaller suitcase. In this suitcase, the authorities found an even smaller suitcase in which a thermocol box was found. When it was opened only the brick was found.
The CISF personnel offloaded Fawusi from the aircraft and handed him over to the Airport police for interrogation.
Airport sources suspect that the two Sri Lankan nationals made a trial run to smuggle goods or explosives. A couple of days ago, BCAS authorities in New Delhi had issued a general alert to all airports in the country of a possible terror attack.
