Desk/SS
On 24 February, at about 5.30 pm, Bangladesh Airlines’ National Flag carrier flight was hijacked by an armed young man of 25. Soon the pilot informed the ATC about the situation and at 5.41PM he made an emergency landing at the Chittagong Airport. The plane was supposed to be going to Dubai from Dhaka via Chittagong.
After the Boeing 737-800 landed on Chittagong Airport, all the law enforcement agencies like Police, Rapid Action Battalion, Armed Police Battalion, and the Bangladesh Air Force have come into action. They were successfully save all the 137 passengers and 14 crew. The plane is also completely unharmed. They needed just 8 minutes to bring the situation under control. So, it was a Swift Operation of 8 minutes. About this, Major General Motiur Rahman, GOC of Chattogram, said, “It was a swift operation. We didn’t even have the time to name the operation”.
According to his words, the hijacker was caught at 7.25 pm after being greatly injured. Before leaving his last breath, he introduced himself as Mehedi and he wanted to talk with his wife and also, the Prime Minister. But he could not give the contact number of his wife and so, they cannot help him. Before the man got injured, they also tried to talk with him. About this, Matiyur Rahman also said, “We tried to talk to him, but he took an attacking position. Our commandos had to move swiftly. They took action. He was brought out injured but later died. ” He also said, “The suspect had a pistol. He was killed in commando operation”.
The hijacker, Mehedi was considered as “Mentally Imbalanced” in accordance with the witness’ speech. Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Naim Hassan also informed that the man appeared as “Mentally imbalanced” to the pilot and so, he decided to make an emergency landing.