KARACHI, Oct 6 On the sidelines of an award ceremony held in recognition of the recent recoveries made by the Airport Security Force (ASF), it was discussed how efficiently a weapon was concealed in the laptop of a Greek passenger.

ASF officials said that it was hard to spot the 9mm Austrian pistol during the screening process, as it was concealed in parts. The main part of the pistol worth around Rs350,000 was concealed in place of the laptop's battery while the other portion was hidden inside the upper casing of the computer. Electronic items, particularly laptops, are difficult to scan through because of their complex making and wires. However, Sub-inspector Mohammad Ajmal, who was scanning the baggage of passengers of a Dubai-bound Emirates flight (EK-605) on Sunday morning, managed to spot the pistol concealed in the laptop of a passenger, Morrakis Anastasio.

The ASF officials said they considered anyone carrying an undeclared weapon, particularly an unlicensed one, to a plane a potential hijacker. “This way the sub-inspector saved the country from a major disaster,” said a senior official of the ASF at the award ceremony held at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport on Tuesday.

Talking to the media, ASF Director General Brigadier Saher Aslam Butt said that the sub-inspector had been promoted to the next rank and awarded a cash prize of Rs500,000 in recognition of his services.

He said that such officials needed encouragement and their services to the country should be acknowledged. He expressed confidence over the maintenance of security at all airports of the country by saying that the ASF within the given resources had always maintained international security standards.

When asked about the installation of the latest scanners at the airport for cargo, he said that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was responsible for the screening of cargo, adding that the ASF, Civil Aviation and all other agencies at the airport worked in complete cooperation with each other. “We work as a team which is essential for the overall functioning of the aviation industry,” he remarked.

He also announced a cash award of Rs10,000 and a certificate for Sub-Inspector Zahid Mehmood, who recently recovered 1.52 kg heroin concealed in the laptops of two passengers of a Bangkok-bound flight, Mohammad Salman and Hammad. Both the business-class passengers posed themselves as executives of an international telecom company.

The ASF officials claimed that the two recoveries from the laptops were the only of their kind in the history of the aviation industry, adding that no other airport security force across the world had ever recovered any illegal item from laptops.

The cases had been referred to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, working under the UN, to help identify new ways of breaching security and taking enhanced safety measures at airports, they said.

Senior officers of the ASF were also present at the ceremony.