CHITTAGONG:Bangladesh commandos stormed a passenger jet in the country's southeastyesterday and shot dead an armed man who allegedly tried to hijack theDubai-bound flight, an army official said. The suspect, described by officialsas a Bangladeshi man in his mid-20s, was shot as special forces rushed theBoeing 737-800 plane after it landed safely in Chittagong. The 134 passengersand 14 crew aboard the Bangladesh Biman flight BG147 were all rescued unharmed,officials said.
But the suspectedhijacker - identified by the name "Mahadi" and described as being 25or 26 years old - was injured and died shortly after being arrested, said armyspokesman Major General Motiur Rahman. "Our commando team asked the hijackerto surrender, but he rejected it by being aggressive, and was shot,"Rahman told reporters. "Later on we learnt he had died... We found apistol from him and nothing else."
The airport wassealed off by army, navy and elite police after landing to collect morepassengers from Dhaka on its journey to Dubai. "Just ten minutes after theplane took off (from Dhaka) he fired twice," one passenger told reportersin Chittagong. Air Vice Marshall Mofid, who goes by one name, said he kept theaccused man busy talking on the phone while special forces units prepared forthe dramatic raid. "He demanded to speak to our Prime Minister (SheikhHasina)," Mofid said. "He claimed he had a pistol, but we are notsure yet whether it is an actual gun or a fake."
An unnamed memberof the crew said the man was carrying a bomb-like object. "(He) said,'I'll hijack this plane... If you don't open the cockpit, I will blow up theplane,'" the crew member told Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo. Othercrew members said passengers were evacuated through four emergency gates of theplane. The hijacker also held a flight steward hostage.
The operationtook less than 10 minutes and the plane has been searched and declared worthyto fly again, Rahman said. The country's civil aviation chief, Nayeem Hasan,earlier said the suspect had claimed to have a bomb aboard the flight."From the talks and dialogue we have with him, it seems he ispsychologically deranged," Hasan said after the man was arrested.
Another armyspokesman, Abdullah Ibne Zaid, said Chittagong's Shah Amanat InternationalAirport was "very much under control of the Bangladesh Army"."The army's special forces conducted the operation and the armed man hasbeen neutralized," he said. Rahman said an investigation would beconducted into how the man "passed airport security details with agun". "It will take some time," he said.
Bangladesh, aMuslim-majority nation of 165 million, has struggled to grapple with homegrownextremism in recent years, including the murder of atheist bloggers andprogressive activists by Islamist outfits. In a deadly attack claimed by theIslamic State group in 2016, militants killed 22 people including 18 foreignersat an upmarket cafe in Dhaka popular with Westerners. That attack prompted aswift crackdown by Prime Minister Hasina, with hundreds of suspected militantsand their sympathizers arrested or killed in raids across the country. -AFP