CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli Objects to Repeated Airport Security Checks

Dragon Media Correspondent

CPN-UML Chair and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has expressed dissatisfaction over what he described as repeated and excessive security checks during air travel.

Addressing a meeting of the Democratic Federation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ilam, Oli said he had been subjected to repeated body checks using metal detectors at airports in Kathmandu and Bhadrapur.

Complaining that he had been treated like a criminal, Oli questioned why he had been checked several times at different stages of the same journey.

“They use a metal detector, they do this and that. What are they trying to find? What are they trying to seize?” Oli asked.

He said that after being screened at one point, he was checked again at subsequent points and was subjected to similar procedures after arriving in Bhadrapur.

In a sarcastic tone, Oli said he was neither a drug user nor carrying concealed gold or any other prohibited item, questioning the need for what he regarded as excessive scrutiny.

He also accused the authorities of failing to adequately address large-scale smuggling along the border while repeatedly subjecting him to metal-detector screening at airports.

“One check should be enough, but then they check again at another point. When I arrive in Bhadrapur, they check again,” he said.

Oli has raised similar complaints about airport security procedures in the past. On an earlier occasion, he objected publicly to what he described as being treated like a gold smuggler during security screening.

Airport screening of passengers and baggage is part of routine civil aviation security procedures. Oli’s objection, however, was directed primarily at the frequency of the checks and the manner in which he said they were conducted.