The gun used during the alleged hijack bid of a Bangladesh Biman flight on Feb 24 was a “useless toy gun,” says a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) ballistic report.
The report was handed over to the counter terrorism unit of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) on Wednesday (Mar 13).
“We knew right after recovering the evidence that it was a toy gun,” Md Shaidullah, CMP Deputy Commissioner Md Shahidullah told Bangla Tribune.
“However, we sent the evidence to the CID forensic lab for ballistics,” he added.
He said that the report stated that it is a useless toy pistol that uses tiny spherical rubber bullets. “When its shot it makes a slight noise but it’s not possible to fire cartridge or fire bullet from the gun.”
The toy gun had “Gun Series, Osaka, Aman Industries, Made in Bangladesh” inscribed on it, and currently it (the gun) is useless, the report said.
One Polash Ahmed allegedly tried to hijack flight BG-147 on February 24 forcing an emergency landing at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram.
All the 148 passengers who were on-board were evacuated safely and the cabin crew members were also safe.
Afterwards, Polash was killed in an eight-minute commando operation.
Investigators later said it was a toy gun and the explosives were just small pieces of plastic pipes wrapped in red tape.
Debabrata Sarker, technology assistant at Chattogram airport, filed a case on February 25 night with Patenga Police Station, in which he said the suspect was seen carrying suspicious-looking objects during the hijack bid 15 minutes after the plane took off from Dhaka.
The toy gun and other items recovered from the scene was sent to CID for ballistic and forensic examination following a Chattogram court order.