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News > World

'Would-be' Hijacker Killed by Police, Was Carrying 'Toy' Gun

  • Security personnel stand guard outside of the hijacked aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines in the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram, Bangladesh February 24, 2019.

    Security personnel stand guard outside of the hijacked aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines in the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram, Bangladesh February 24, 2019. | Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Published 25 February 2019
Opinion

A Bangladeshi man, shot dead after attempting to hijack a plane bound for Dubai, was carrying a 'toy' gun and wasn't carrying explosives, reports Channel News Asia.

A would-be hijacker shot and killed by Bangladesh commandos was carrying a fake gun and told negotiators he wanted to commandeer a Dubai-bound flight because "he had troubles with his wife," officials said Monday.

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Airport manager Wing Commander Sarwar-e-Jaman said the hijacker was "psychologically imbalanced."

"The reason he gave for the hijack was that he had troubles with his wife and he wanted to talk to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina," Sarwar said.

The 25-year-old man was shot and later died of his wounds after taking a crew member hostage on the Biman Bangladesh Airlines jet, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Chittagong airport late Sunday.

A passenger told reporters the man may have fired a weapon twice, but it was later revealed that the gun he was carrying wasn't in-fact, real.

"According to those who have seen it, it appears that the gun was fake," said civil aviation authority chairman Air Vice Marshall Nayeem Hasan. ​​The man was reported to have stormed the cockpit, demanding the plane perform an emergency landing. 134 passengers and 14 crew on-board Flight BG 147 were unharmed, and there is currently an investigation underway to determine how the deceased man managed to smuggle even a fake gun onto what, officials are calling, "a security system that is impossible to breach."

The civil aviation chief at the Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport told    reporters, "It is virtually impossible to breach this security as the system is designed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation." 

According to Channel News Asia, there was major cause for concern as "Bangladesh has struggled with radical groups in recent years, including the murder of atheist bloggers and progressive activists by Islamist outfits."

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