Passenger Forces Bangladesh Plane to Land and Is Fatally Shot

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Special forces troops surrounding a Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane that was forced into an emergency landing at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Sunday.CreditCreditEPA, via Shutterstock

By Julfikar Ali Manik, Mike Ives and Kai Schultz

Feb. 25, 2019

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Special forces troops stormed a plane on the tarmac of a Bangladesh airport on Sunday, fatally shooting a passenger who sought to speak with the country’s prime minister, officials said on Monday.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines Flight 147 had been traveling to Dubai from Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. The domestic passenger, identified by the police as Mohammed Polash Ahmed, stormed the cockpit about 15 minutes after takeoff on Sunday afternoon, forcing the pilot into making an emergency landing in Chittagong, where the plane had been scheduled to make a stop.

A senior official with Biman Bangladesh Airlines, speaking on condition of anonymity, said seven crew members and 143 passengers, including Mr. Ahmed, who was in his mid-30s, were aboard the plane.

After landing at Shah Amanat International Airport on Sunday evening, all but one crew member — who was kept as a hostage but not harmed — were evacuated, the official said.

Military commandos then rushed the plane and shot Mr. Ahmed after he refused to surrender.

Mohammad Mufti Mahmud Khan, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion, a Bangladeshi police force comprised of military personnel, said in an interview that investigators had taken Mr. Ahmed’s fingerprint and matched it in a criminal database.

Mr. Khan would not elaborate on the case against Mr. Ahmed, who lived in a district near Dhaka, the nation’s capital. But he said there was no evidence at this point that Mr. Ahmed had links to terrorist groups that have struck before in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of about 160 million people.

“We are trying to get more information abut his old case,” he said.

In July 2016, a group of young men entered the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka with heavy bags of weaponry, including grenades. They sorted out non-Muslim and foreign diners and killed 20 hostages and two police officers using guns and machetes.

The attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State, was the most ambitious by insurgents in the region in recent years, and evidence that Bangladesh’s militant networks may have internationalized.

Passengers and officials initially told reporters that Mr. Ahmed had been carrying a pistol and had claimed to have a bomb on the aircraft. One passenger, Osman Gani, said Mr. Ahmed, who was sitting in the 17th row, had threatened to shoot people shortly after takeoff.

“He also fired several rounds, leaving the passengers panicked,” Mr. Gani was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.

But later, a local police commissioner, Mahabubor Rahman, said the pistol was a fake. And on Monday, Mohibul Haque, the secretary of Bangladesh’s civil aviation and tourism ministry, would not confirm that Mr. Ahmed was carrying a weapon — real or fake — of any kind.

Officials said that during the standoff, the suspect told army officials that he wanted to speak with his wife and Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

Mrs. Hasina had been in Chittagong, a large port city officially known as Chattogram, earlier on Sunday, but returned to Dhaka, about 150 miles northwest, before the hijackinging attempt took place, the Dhaka Tribune said.

M. Naim Hassan, the chairman of Bangladesh’s Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters that Mr. Ahmed appeared “mentally imbalanced” based on his behavior.

Moniruzzaman, a police officer in Mr. Ahmed’s home district who goes by only one name, said in an interview that he was known locally “as a cheater.”

“He used to take money from people, making promises that he would send them abroad for work, or he would give them a job in the country,” Mr. Moniruzzaman said.

Mr. Ahmed died before reaching a Chittagong hospital, officials said. It was unclear as of Monday how he had managed to board the flight, a Boeing 737-800, with what looked like a gun.

In December, Bangladesh’s governing party handily won parliamentary elections, clinching a third consecutive term for Mrs. Hasina. But local and international rights organizations accused the party, the Awami League, of creating an intimidating atmosphere by arresting and harassing opposition candidates and preventing them from campaigning.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the national flag carrier, was established in 1972, according to the Australia-based CAPA Center for Aviation. It operates domestic passenger service across Asia and Europe.

Julfikar Ali Manik reported from Dhaka, Mike Ives from Hong Kong and Kai Schultz from New Delhi.

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