Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials on Friday removed two female passengers from an international flight at the Bacha Khan International Airport Peshawar after it emerged that the women had been nominated in an FIR lodged in Islamabad.

Passengers Haseena Bibi and Fauzia were removed from Qatar Airways flight QR-600, said an FIA official. A case had been registered against the women following their physical clash with female FIA staff members at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad.

“They were leaving for Doha and then to Norway but since we have information that the passengers were nominated in an FIR and an inquiry is underway, we could not let them go,” a senior FIA official told a private news channel.

Videos of the scuffle went viral on the social media earlier this week, showing FIA staffers beating up the two women.

In an earlier interview, Haseena had told the news channel that the staffers had been irked by her daughter Fauzia because she had asked them for toilet paper. Haseena said the FIA officials had told Fauzia off and got angry when Fauzia asked her not to misbehave with passengers, leading to a scuffle.

However, CCTV videos that emerged later showed the passengers misbehaving with the FIA officials instead.

Earlier this week, the FIA suspended the shift in-charge at the airport on the Interior Ministry’s orders and formed a committee to probe the incident.

There were some reports that one of the passengers beaten by a female FIA official suffered injuries and had to be rushed to the hospital. The FIA, however, denied that its officials thrashed the passengers.