The AirAsia flight AK77, deployed to evacuate Malaysians from Bangladesh, safely landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 9:20 AM local time. The specially chartered Airbus A320, arranged under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s directive, is scheduled to depart for Kuala Lumpur at 10 AM local time. Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Haznah Md Hashim, was present to see off the evacuees.
The flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 2 will take approximately 3 hours and 55 minutes, landing at around 4:10 PM Malaysian time. Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail will greet the evacuees upon arrival. The decision to bring back Malaysians from Bangladesh was due to security concerns following escalating tensions.
The mission involved 15 officers from the Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Department, and the National Security Council. Thousands of students in Bangladesh have been protesting since July 1 after a court reinstated quotas for public sector jobs abolished in 2018. Malaysia is the second country, after India, to evacuate citizens due to violent protests that have claimed over 130 lives since mid-July. The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, stated that the ministry would collaborate with the Foreign Ministry to provide assistance to Malaysians returning from strife-torn Bangladesh.