Airport (KLIA) Robbery

The daring RM3.5 million KLIA robbery on Wednesday has spewed forth a litany of unanswered questions following the revelation that the closedcircuit cameras outside the departure hall did not record the drama.
Even the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan raised two questions: Why such a large amount of cash had been brought to the airport and why a policeman had allegedly moonlighted as an armed escort for the moneychangers.

Musa had also asked why the moneychangers had not adhered to procedures, and questioned who had given the injured cop permission to moonlight.

Bernama quoted Musa as saying that police would conduct a “thorough investigation to fi nd out why procedures were not adhered to”.On the allegation raised by an English daily that a policeman had been engaged as an armed security guard, he said: “If he really worked as a security guard, who gave him the permission? We will ask the police chief con- cerne d. ” The Malay Mail was also swamped with calls from readers who raised more questions about the incident after seeing televi- sion reports last night that the CCTV cameras trained at the area outside the departure hall at Level 5 had not recorded the robbery.

They were appalled that there was lax security at the airport, recently voted the world’s best airport, just a day after a knife had been smuggled past KLIA se- curity check into a passenger air- craft bound for Dhaka, Bang l a de s h .

The flight had to make an emer- gency landing in Bangkok after the man was arrested for bran- dishing a knife that created panic on board.

Three MAB staff have been sus- pended following the incident.

The questions raised by our readers were: l Why weren’t the CCTVs re- cordi ng ? l What measures do Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad have in place to counter such a crisis? l Did the robbers know that these cameras were not recording, given the fact that they were not masked or helmeted? l Why wasn’t airport security activated when the shooting drama lasted for about five minutes ? One reader said it was amazing that one of the moneychangers and an armed guard had not been hit, considering that at least 40 rounds were expended at close ra nge.

The reader said he was intrigued as The Malay Mail had yesterday reported an eyewitness account that one of the robbers had screamed “kill them all” befo re opening fire.

Meanwhile, airport and police authorities last night confirmed that the cameras were not record- ing but were installed to monitor.

Selangor CPO Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, when contacted last night, only said that police could not depend on the CCTV.

“It is not helping us in our investig a t io ns, ” he told The Malay Mail.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Ber- had senior general manager (op- erations), Datuk Azmi Murad, de- clined to comment when asked how many cameras were used for monitoring and recording, and how many cameras were installed thro u g ho u t .

“We are having a meeting today to discuss the issue.” Sepang district police chief Supt Zahedi Ayub said initial in- vestigations ruled out an inside job.

He said police were piecing to- gether the evidence and attempt- ing to

Source: Bernama
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