Pakistan-origin man arrested for threatening to blow up Malaysia Airlines plane – Times of India
The incident occurred on August 14. Police arrested Canberra resident Muhammad Arif and took him from the Airbus A330, almost three hours after Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 returned to Sydney Airport. Police said Arif became disruptive and claimed to have explosives on board.
He was charged with making a false statement about a threat to damage an aircraft and failing to comply with the cabin crew’s safety instructions.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of more than 15,000 Australian dollars ($7,300) respectively.
‘Not in right state of mind’
Arif refused to leave his police cell to appear before a Sydney court by video link. Magistrate Greg Grogin ruled out forcing Arif from the cell.
Defence lawyer Mostafa Daoudie told Grogin that Arif had “serious mental issues” and was “not in the right state of mind”.
Grogin postponed the listing of Arif’s case until late Tuesday to allow Daoudie time to visit the police cell and assess whether his client was “fit and able to give instructions”. But Arif never appeared and his case was listed for Wednesday. The magistrate refused to release him on bail.
‘Started praying loudly’
The flight left Sydney on Monday with 199 passengers and 12 crew on a scheduled eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur.
One of the passengers, Velutha Parambath, said Arif had drawn attention to himself before takeoff by praying aloud.
“At that point, we just thought he was praying for everyone. People just generally had a laugh,” said Parambath, who was seated five rows behind Arif.
But half an hour into the flight, Arif became louder, stood up and started pushing and shoving passengers.
The man implied that he had explosives in a backpack, Parambath said.
Malaysia Airlines said the pilot decided to return to Sydney for safety reasons.
Passengers stuck in plane for 3 hours
The passengers’ concerns escalated after they landed and spent almost three hours in the plane on the tarmac. “All we saw were fire engines surrounding us and again people reading the news saying there’s potentially a bomb on the plane,” Parambath said.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb defended the delay between when the plane landed and when two police officers handcuffed Arif. “We can never presume anything and you don’t know whether this person was acting alone or he actually had other support on the plane or outside the plane,” Webb said.
Sydney Airport said in a statement that thirty-two domestic flights were cancelled and other domestic flights delayed by up to 90 minutes due to the incident. There were no international flight cancellations.
Accused a former Pakistani model
According to several media reports, Arif is a former Pakistani model and actor. He graduated from National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore in 2002 and worked as an architect in various firms in Karachi and Lahore from 2002 to 2016.
He was also allegedly featured in renowned Pakistani singer Abrar-ul-Haq’s song, “Preeto” and as an actor he was in a Pakistani sitcom, “Kollege Jeans”, which revolves around the campus life of the National College of Arts, directed by Jawad Bashir.
Most of his entertainment industry friends said they lost contact with him while one stated that, “I lost contact a long while ago but I heard that he has developed extremist views”.
He has a YouTube channel “Food for Thought”, which comprises shorts and videos, mostly based on his religious views. The last video was on August 12, 2023.
(With inputs from agencies)