JAIPUR: The Jodhpur airport was temporarily locked down and flight operations were suspended on Monday following claims of a passenger on an inbound plane from Mumbai of having been kidnapped by terrorists.
A man named Dinesh (34) has been detained for further investigation, said police officials investigating the matter. While on the flight, Dinesh allegedly told an airhostess that he was being forced to travel on the aircraft by members of terrorist organisations from Pakistan and Bangladesh. He added that they were scouting different cities to carry out terror attacks, said officials.
The information was relayed to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) who in turn, alerted CISF officials at the Jodhpur Airport.
The airport was shutdown.There were 169 passengers onboard who were asked to wait while CISF entered the aircraft and took Dinesh and 5 others into custody.During interrogation, Dinesh told the police that he had contacted the family members of a missing boy in Mysuru and told them that he was currently in Jodhpur with a ‘tantric’ (occultist) in order to claim the reward money announced by them, a police officer said
“He told them that he could take them to Jodhpur, after which two family members of the boy along with four policemen from Mysuru police had left for Jodhpur,” said the officer. During the flight, he got scared and narrated the concocted story saying the men were kidnapping him.
Theories of the police
Police officials said they are in investigating the reason behind Dinesh’s story. Upon his plane’s arrival, the airport was shut down and CISf officials entered the aircraft to take Dinesh and his escorts into custody.