Wannabe Hijacker's Gun Wasn't Real

Mohammad Palash Ahmed was sporting a toy pistol when he was shot dead
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2019 11:08 AM CST
Hijacker Wannabe Had a Toy Gun: Cops
A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight is seen after it made an emergency landing at the airport in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Sunday.   (AP Photo)

A man who tried to hijack a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight on Sunday and demanded to speak to the prime minister of Bangladesh was shot dead by commandos after an emergency landing in Chittagong, and it's now being reported that the "weapon" he was seen with was just a fake. Per the BBC, Kusum Dewan, the Chittagong police commissioner, says that 25-year-old Mohammad Palash Ahmed, said to be an aspiring actor, wasn't carrying explosives and had only a toy gun on him. Still, the phony firearm did make its way past airport security, and investigators want to know how that happened.

The commandos gunned down Ahmed after he was asked to surrender and instead pretended to fire at them with the toy, an army official told reporters, per ATN. "He appeared to be mentally imbalanced," Dewan says, per Al Jazeera. "We heard he had a personal issue with his wife and demanded to speak to the prime minister. But we are still investigating. We don't want to come to any conclusion right now." (More Bangladesh stories.)

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