SEPANG, July 23 – A special flight, under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s directive to bring back Malaysians in strife-torn Bangladesh, departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2 at 7.30 am Tuesday.
The AirAsia flight, which utilises an Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft capable of accommodating 350 passengers, is expected to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 9.20 am (local time).
Foreign Ministry’s South and Central Asia Division undersecretary Datuk Dr Shazelina Zainul Abidin, who is leading the mission, said that over 100 Malaysians, including students, have been sheltered at the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka since yesterday.
“This evacuation mission has been planned since July 12 and is expected to take less than 12 hours.
“Once we got the green light from our High Commissioner in Bangladesh, we secured the aircraft, but there was a slight delay, and we could not commence yesterday as we were asked to wait to ensure our students reached our High Commission in Dhaka,” she told Bernama.
Shazelina said the evacuation flight is expected to depart for Malaysia from Dhaka at 10 am (local time) and arrive at KLIA Terminal 2 at around 4.20 pm.
