Fire-crackers in shoes: Cops suspect a recce trip

Mumbai: Just the intention to hide fire-crackers in three pairs of shoes while taking a flight back to Muscat appears suspicious enough for police to further investigate the matter and find out what exactly was the motive, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VIII) Nissar Tamboli while commenting on the Wednesday’s incident at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).
On Wednesday evening at 5:30, the ground-handling staff of Air India had detected 30 fire-crackers hidden inside the soles of plastic shoes in the baggage of 29-year-old Omani national Badar Naser Allidi. According to officials at the Sahar police station, Allidi is said to have told interrogating officers that the shoes were given to him by another person in Mumbai and were meant for someone else in Muscat, with him just being a carrier.
Police officials, however, do not seem convinced. Even the services of an Arabic translator were hired as Allidi can neither understand nor speak either Hindi or English.
“The prime focus of our investigation is to get to the man who gave Allidi the shoes, if that really is the case,” said Tamboli. He also said that the case, under current circumstances, also appears to be the one of a ‘recce’ trip to assess ground realities. Though Tamboli did not elaborate on the matter, sources told Newsline that the recce angle is being seriously looked into.
While the modus operandi of Allidi is yet to be ascertained, it does bring back the memory of Richard Colvin Reid alias Abdul Rahim who became famous as ‘the shoe bomber’. He was prevented from blowing an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in 2001 by detonating plastic explosives contained in his shoes.
24/07/08 Shashank Shekhar/Mumbai Newsline

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Categories: Airports Jul 2008, Foreign Jul 2008, Safety Jul 2008