Indian-American offloaded from international flight in Islamabad over 'bomb hoax'

Islamabad: An Indian-American man on board the Qatar Airways flight to Washington via Doha was offloaded at the Benazir International Airport in Islamabad around 3 a.m. on Friday after he claimed that there was a bomb on the aircraft, which later turned out to be a hoax.

Qatar Airways refused to board Ajit Vijay Joshi on its plane, claiming that he raised a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the Express Tribune reports.

Joshi was, however, detained by the airport security and was released only after the flight landed in Doha.

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had last week held a passenger at the same airport for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin to Italy.

An ANF release claimed that during routine patrolling, officials apprehended Khalid Mehmood, a resident of Gujarat, who purportedly confessed to having ingested heroin capsules.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at various airports around the globe since a wave of coordinated attacks were carried out in Paris on November 13, claiming 129 lives, and downing of a Russian plane on October 31, killing all 224 on board.

Two Air France flights from United States to Paris diverted over bomb threats

On November 17, two Air France flights en route to Paris from the United States were diverted following anonymous bomb threats, and hundreds of passengers and crew were safely removed, the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration said.

On November 22, a Turkish Airlines flight bound for Istanbul from New York was diverted to Halifax, Canada, after a bomb threat, Canadian police said.

On the same day, a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight from San Francisco via Hong Kong received a bomb threat but arrived without incident in Singapore, police said.