by Senior Correspondent in bdnews24.com, Nov 1, 2017
The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB has arrested a Biman Bangladesh Airlines pilot, who it says was planning a terror attack involving aircraft.
Sabbir Amam, a first officer with the flag carrier, was arrested with three others on Tuesday at Dhaka’s Mirpur.
The elite police unit says Amam admitted to planning an attack on top government officials’ residences with a plane or hi-jacking an aircraft and taking it to the Middle East.
RAB says the four arrested in different parts of the capital’s Mirpur, between 2am and 11am on Monday, are accomplices of slain JMB operative Abdullah, who blew himself up during a raid last month.
On the night of Sep 4, RAB sealed off a building in Mirpur, where Abdullah lived. After a stand-off of more than 24 hours, Abdullah triggered a suicide blast.
RAB said later they found remains of seven human bodies inside the apartment. According to locals, Abdullah lived in that apartment with his two wives and children.
The building’s owner Habibullah Bahar Azad was detained during the raid, when RAB came to know his son Sabbir Amam is a pilot with Biman.
At a media briefing on Tuesday, RAB said Amam graduated as a pilot from the Bangladesh Flying Academy in 2009.
He joined private airlines Regent Airways in 2010 and worked there for four years before joining the national airlines.
RAB said he was a co-pilot for the Biman fleet’s Boeing 737 aircraft and on Monday, was on duty for Dhaka-Kolkata flights.
“Sabbir (Amam) was close with Abdullah. He was recruited to the JMB by Sarwar Jahan, who was reviving the terror outfit,” RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud Khan said.
He said Amam admitted during interrogation that he had planned a terror attack with a plane with Abdullah and Sarwar.
Replying to a query, Khan said, “We have informed the media after getting sufficient evidence. The key thing is, with his arrest we have been able to foil a terror attack plan.”
https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/11/01/rab-claims-foiling-terror-plot-involving-plane-arrests-pilot-three-others
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