Would-be Bangladesh hijacker was carrying fake gun, say officials

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 yesterday.The 25-year-old was shot and later died of his wounds after taking a crew member hostage on the Biman Airlines jet, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Chittagong airport late Sunday.Some 134 passengers and 14 crew were released unharmed after an operation that lasted barely 10 minutes.Airport manager 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.Flight BG 147 was going from Dhaka to Dubai via Chittagong when the hijacking started.The man reportedly wielded a gun in the cabin and tried to storm the cockpit, forcing an emergency landing.One passenger told reporters he may have fired the weapon twice, but Civil Aviation Authority chairman Nayeem Hasan said the gun he was carrying was not real.“According to those who have seen it, it appears that the gun was fake,” Hasan said. Bangladesh’s elite police unit, the Rapid Action Battalion, meanwhile identified the suspect as Mohammed Polash Ahmed from Narayanganj, just outside the capital Dhaka.“His details matched a criminal on our database,” the RAB said in a statement, adding he was arrested in 2012 over an abduction case and served 20 days in prison.Ahmed’s father, Piar Jahan, said that his son married a Bangladeshi film star just under a year ago without the consent of the family.Jahan said he was not sure if his son, who was an aspiring actor, was having relationship troubles with his wife, who goes by the name Shimla.The actress was not immediately available for comment.Intimate images purportedly of the pair have gone viral on social media since the hijacking late Sunday.Amid multiple investigations, authorities are focusing on how Ahmed managed to smuggle even a fake gun past security at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. “An inquiry is underway,” the civil aviation chief said.“It is virtually impossible to breach this security as the system is designed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation,” he added.Hasan said Bangladesh security was in line with global standards and the country’s airports were regularly checked by top international firms.Abdullah al Faruq, the head of Dhaka International Airport, said security oversight “has been increased” at the country’s largest terminal since the incident. Pictures of the plane on the runway at Chittagong’s Shah Amanat international airport in the dark dominated local newspapers yesterday.Bangladesh, a nation of 165mn, has struggled with radical groups in recent years, including the murder of atheist bloggers and progressive activists by Islamist outfits.In a deadly attack claimed by the Islamic State group in 2016, militants killed 22 people including 18 foreigners at an upmarket cafe in Dhaka popular with Westerners.That attack prompted a swift crackdown by Prime Minister Hasina, with hundreds of suspected militants and their sympathisers arrested or killed in raids across the country.