For the last 4 days the whole world has been mystified as to the fate of the Malaysia Airlines flight, MH 370 which disappeared in the early hours of 8 March with 239 passengers and crew, 5 of whom were children in the range of 2 to 4 years. At 1.30 AM, while flying over the Gulf of Thailand, on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in China, it lost all communications and even the transponder stopped working but radar could still track it for another 1 hour and 10 minutes before it disappeared completely. The plane is known to have veered towards the west but there is confusion whether it was trying to return to Kuala Lumpur or had flown hundreds of miles to the west over a small island called Palan Perak in the Malacca Straits. Apparently 4 passengers checked in but did not board the flight but there is confusion as to whether their luggage had been removed from the plane according to international practice. Relatives claim that they have been getting through to the phones of passengers. But the biggest mystery is about 2 Iranians who boarded the flight with false passports stolen in Thailand. They have been identified as Pouri Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 18 years old who was using the passport of Christian Kozel, a 30 years old Austrian, stolen in 2012, and Mohammad Reza 29 years old, who was using the passport of Luigi Maraldi, a 37 years old Italian, stolen in 2013. A Malaysian official described Reza as resembling the AC Milan footballer, Mario Balotelli when CCTV pictures show that there is no resemblance whatsoever. This is particularly shocking given the intrusive and humiliating security checks by rude, arrogant officials that we have to endure at every airport. How could 2 ordinary Iranians, possibly with no knowledge of German or Italian, assume the identities of 2 Europeans and walk into the plane when the details of the passports were on the Interpol site? This explains why you are more likely to die of a bomb blast in India than in Afghanistan. Bio-metric cards like Aadhar and frequent Know Your Customer checks by banks are not really to stop terrorists but to frighten law abiding citizens into docility. Also it gives our masters, the politicians the excuse to block our roads with a fleet of SUVs bought with our money. Wonder who the real terrorists are.
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