The detained Biman Bangladesh Airlines co-pilot Sabbir Emam Sabbir, who was suspended for allegedly engineering a plan to attack the Prime Minister’s residence with a plane, gave confessional statement to a city magistrate on Wednesday.
Sabbir was brought before Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sarafuzzaman Ansari yesterday after his seven-day remand was expired. Later, the magistrate recorded his confessional statement for over three hours at his chamber, a court official said.
The magistrate ordered to send Sabbir to Keraniganj Jail. The court official, however, could not provide details of the confessional statement immediately.
Earlier on October 31, the RAB arrested Sabbir, his mother Sultana Parvin, their relative Asifur Rahman Asif, and local tea-stall owner Alam conducting a series of raids in different parts of the city. The detainees were placed on remand later.
The authorities of Biman Bangladesh Airlines suspended Sabbir soon after militancy charges were brought against him by the law enforcement agencies.
Sabbir’s father Habibullah Bahar Azad was earlier arrested around two months ago. He was owner of a building in the city’s Darussalam area which was raided by the RAB for allegedly sheltering Islamist militants.
Abdullah alias Meer Akrabul Karim, a suspected JMB leader, was killed along with his two wives, two children and two of his associates in a “suicide blast” inside their apartment during the crackdown.
After arresting, Director [legal and media wing] of RAB Mufti Mahmud Khan had said Sabbir was planning to carry out a suicide attack with an aircraft on the houses of government high-ups. Besides, he had an alternative plan to kidnap a passenger plane and take it to a Middle Eastern country.
The Rapid Action Battalion official had alleged that Sabbir took a plane along with passengers to the IS base in Syria.
