One person was killed and several others injured when security personnel thwarted an attack on a Bangladesh Air Force base in the southeastern beach town of Cox’s Bazar Monday. The deceased has been identified as 25-year-old Shihab Kabir Nahid.
The defence ministry’s Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) directorate said miscreants launched a sudden attack on the Air Force base around noon. “In order to protect important state installations, blank shots were fired by Air Force personnel in accordance with its ‘Rules of Engagement’. No live bullets were fired at the local people,” it said, adding that a malicious group is spreading propaganda on social media that the young man was killed in firing by the Air Force, which is not true.
Incidentally, the attack – purportedly by people living in areas close to the Air Force base – occurred hours after home affairs adviser, retired Lieutenant General M Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, in a pre-dawn presser reiterated the Yunus govt’s commitment to maintaining law and order.
Chaos started when alocal was taken inside the base for questioning from the Air Force check post because he did not have documents for his motorcycle. More than two hundred locals gathered to protest this. As they started moving towards the base, they were stopped by the Air Force personnel. As the number of protesting locals increased, a clash broke out between the personnel and “some miscreants” within the group.