The Bangladesh Airline Pilots' Association (BAPA) has threatened to put brakes on its work from Monday if the two pilots it suspended were not removed from their Biman posts.

Leaders of BAPA, an association of all the 140 pilots of the national flag carriers, met Managing Director (MD) of Biman Lutfur Rahman Wednesday and asked him to remove the two by Sunday.

BAPA reminded the MD that half of the Biman flights would stay grounded if the pilots started to go slow from Monday. Biman operates about eight international and five domestic flights daily.

BAPA executive committee on July 1 suspended the membership of Captain Selim and Captain Joarder till its next annual general meeting in January next year after they failed to reply to a show-cause notice on their alleged involvement in activities detrimental to the interest of the pilots.

BAPA claimed that Selim, chief of safety of Biman, and Joarder, chief of training, used their offices to harass pilots in renewing licence.

Biman has an agreement with BAPA on recruitment of pilots. As

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per the deal, both Selim and Joarder can remain as Biman pilots even if BAPA cancelled their memberships.

The managing director could not be reached yesterday. However, a top Biman official said they are looking into the allegation against the two pilots. The matter is now at an 'immature' stage, he said.