Airport Armed Police

The Airport Armed Police (AAP) is the specialized unit of Bangladesh Police responsible for law enforcement in the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport of Dhaka, the largest and busiest airport of Bangladesh. The AAP is one of the battalion of the Armed Police Battalions (APBn) in Bangladesh.

History

Armed Police Battalion (APBn) is empowered to ensure internal security, arrest armed terrorist, recover arms & explosives, and any other responsibility endowed upon by the Government as per Section 6 of the Armed Police Battalion Ordinance, 1979. According to the Government decision for the deployment of armed police battalion to take over the responsibility of overall security of the airport, Airport Armed Police was deployed on 1 June 2010. In order to perform its duty more effectively and efficiently within its jurisdiction, Airport Armed Police maintains good relation and cooperation with other stakeholders of the Airport including Civil Aviation Authority, Customs, different intelligence units, airline operators and other similar organizations.

Organization

A total of 1100 personnel (including 100 female members) have been performing the security responsibility in the largest airport of Bangladesh. Airport Armed Police has four types of team for securing the airport namely:^[1]

1. Uniformed Guard and Checking Team
2. Intelligence Team
3. Crisis Response Team (CRT)
4. Observation & Assessment Team

Area of responsibility

Airport Armed Police performs the responsibility of securing the airport independently. According to the directions from Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism and Bangladesh Police Headquarters, Airport Armed Police generally performs the following responsibilities:^[2]

1. To prevent any type of subversive act at the airport, preventing illegal trespass of unwanted & unauthorized persons, prevent/stop pilferage or theft of passenger luggage as well as stopping harassment of passengers ensuring the overall security of the airport.
2. Collection of information and detection of probable offenders through application of video technology in various area inside the airport including arrival, departure, parking area, conveyor belt, hangar, tarmac area.
3. Searching and general checking at all the entries and inside the airport and searching travel document, luggage or body of suspicious persons/passengers.
4. Taking up necessary legal action after investigation of any incident regarding luggage theft/pilferage, smuggling, unclaimed luggage, passenger harassment etc.
5. Preventing subversive act or militant attack and collection of intelligence information concerning security and coordination with other agencies.

References