He wore 16 pieces of clothes, hid 4.4kg gold!

After an over five-hour-long flight from UAE's Sharjah, Mohammad Shaheed Mia landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at precisely 8:41am on Friday.
As he walked to the customs counter, the officials went on with their usual proceedings, asking if he was carrying any gold.

He admitted to carrying around 100 grammes.
The officials upon seraching, however, found gold ornaments weighing only about 30 grammes. Despite asking him repeatedly and continuing the search, they were told by Shaheed that there was no other gold in his luggage or on his person.
Amid arguments and questioning, the officials suddenly noticed he was wearing an unusual number of clothes, which seemed suspicious considering the hot weather.
After he was asked to remove the additional layers of clothing, they were shocked to see at least 16 pieces -- a pair of long pants, nine pairs of shorts, and six vests.

The officials spotted some gold dust upon scanning the garments and then decided to torch the clothing items, assured there was gold hidden inside them.
To their utter bewilderment, yellow hues started appearing and depositing in the container as soon as the fabrics caught flames at the airport's Canopy-1.
Once the gold was collected, it was seen that he was actually carrying over four kilograms of gold.
Pradip Kumar Sarker, assistant director at the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, said, "We found around 4.4kg gold from his clothes after burning them yesterday. In total, he was carrying around 4,492 grammes of gold worth around Tk 4.60 crore."
A case was filed with Airport Police Station in this regard.
In Bangladesh, the annual demand for gold is between 20 and 40 tonnes.
At least 80 percent of the demand is met through smuggled gold, according to the commerce ministry.
National Board of Revenue data showed that people travelled to Bangladesh with at least 99,791kg gold from 2019 to 2022.
At least 52,195kg worth Tk 44,366 crore was brought in 2022 alone.
Customs officials said that individuals bringing gold to the country under the baggage rule have to pay less in taxes than the ones importing gold for business, which is why the smugglers are able to work around the system.
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