Hijack scare -- Bangla sacks 3 Biman pilots
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dhaka, Jan 17: Bangladesh's flag carrier, Biman, has sacked three commercial pilots, related to two convicted accused in the Mujibur Rahman murder case, following last week's hijack scare involving some Israeli nationals.

Captain Ishfaque has been compulsorily retired and the other two, Captain Ansar and Captain Yashmin, have been served termination notices, mass-circulated vernacular daily Janakantha reported today.

Yashmin, the first woman pilot of Bangladesh, is the younger sister of Colonel (retd.) Farooq, a convicted accused now in a Dhaka jail. Captain Ishfaque is her husband. The other pilot, Captain Ansar, is the brother of another convicted accused Capt (retd) Mohiuddin.

Janakantha quoted managing director of Biman Corporation Rafiqul Islam as saying that termination notices were served on the three on January 11. No official reason was cited in the notices.

Janakantha, however, said that this follows intelligence reports the three had `secret linkage' with a group involved in planning hijackof a London-bound Biman flight.

One of the pilots reportedly had a meeting with with one of the suspected killers of Rahman in the US.

Another daily Prothom quoted Ishafaque as expressing surprise over the move. ``After successfully rendering service to the airline for so long, it is not desirable for anyone to get such a notice of removal," he said.

His wife, Yashmin also expressed surprise over the move.

Eleven Israeli nationals were offloaded from a Dhaka-bound Biman flight from Calcutta on January 11 on suspicion of planning to hijack the flight to free those convicted in murder of founding father Rahman in a 1975 military coup.

A Dhaka court in November, 1998 sentenced 15 former army officers to death for murdering Rahman and his family. Only four of them are in jail, while the rest have fled.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.