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DESPATCHES
THE HINDU Magazine DELHI
Sunday, March 3, 2019 7

DHAKA LONDON
The man who tried to The spy who got a

hijack a passenger plane blue plaque in London

Just after the death of the Even on a brief stroll
lone suspect in the through central London,
attempted hijack of a a visitor is likely to
Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane on encounter a smart blue plaque on the
February 24, his father shunned him as door of a building, marking a place
his “disobedient” son and, at one where a notable person lived.
point, refused to receive his coffin. Run by English Heritage — one of
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the organisations running many of
an elite police force, found his name on Britain’s historic monuments — the
its criminal watchlist. The civil aviation system of marking places that had been
authority described him as “mentally home to major figures, ranging from
imbalanced”. His one­time wife Charles Dickens to Karl Marx to Jack
revealed that their marriage fell apart Cohen (the founder of the grocery
because he hid behind “too many c giant Tesco) has been going on since c
masks and lies”. These details that Polash Ahmed, who was shot the 19th century, with over 900 Noor Inayat Khan, who was
emerged after the attempted hijack dead after trying to hijack a plaques located across the capital. killed spying for Britain during
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defined Polash Ahmed, a 24­year­old Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane, While some had insisted that there
from the central district of have been too many in the U.K., others the Second World War,
Narayanganj. As it turned out, his life had hidden behind too many pointed to a far more concerning will be soon accorded a plaque,
had gone off track — a bit too far. masks and lies, says his ex-wife aspect: the lack of women, and marking a significant first
Ahmed attempted to hijack the particularly women from ethnic
plane, before he was shot dead in a could not be independently verified. minority groups, to have been on and on about it: Even Ziggy
commando blitz that lasted only eight After many freewheeling years in recognised in this way. Even last year, Stardust [the iconic David Bowie
minutes. He demanded that the the world of make­believe, Ahmed just 14% of blue plaques marked album] got a ‘blue plaque’ but Noor
authorities allow him to speak to Prime turned to religion near the end of his women, English Heritage noted, as it didn’t.”
Minister Sheikh Hasina. life, according to his family. He sealed pledged to address the gender Ten years on, Noor’s memorial trust
As the drama unfolded on the his fate on the evening of February 24, imbalance. “The London blue plaques was able to apply again and last week
tarmac at the Shah Amanat when the Biman Bangladesh Flight 147 scheme is over 150 years old and the received news that they had been
International Airport in Chittagong, had been flying to Dubai from Dhaka dominance of plaques to men reflects a successful: subject to the agreement of
Ahmed also wanted to speak to his via Chittagong. The plane made an historic blindness to both the role the owners of the property — the
#70929
former wife, who was later identified as emergency landing in the southeastern women have played in our society and University of London — a blue plaque
Samsun Nahar Shimla, an award­ port city after he wielded a “gun” the types of roles deemed worthy of will be placed on the door of 4 Taviton
winning actor. It was a quiet Sunday for threatening to storm the cockpit, 15 celebration,” the organisation’s Street in Bloomsbury, down the road
his father Pyar Jahan Sardar, a grocer. minutes after the take­off, and held a curatorial director said, as she from Gordon Square, where Noor was
But the day swiftly changed when crew member hostage. In the chaos launched a public call for nominations. said to have spent many a day on a
police arrived on his doorstep with a that followed, security forces Among those approached in recent bench reading and where a bust of hers
photograph. Mr. Sardar identified the surrounded the plane with airport times was the ‘Memorial of Noor Inayat now stands.
man as his son, prompting the police to lights shining through the dark. Khan’, which carries out work to build The news has added significance as
comb through his village home. In the immediate aftermath of the recognition and understanding of the Noor will be the first woman of Indian
Mr. Sardar said he was in the dark attempted hijacking, government part­Indian, part­American British origin in the U.K. to be accorded a blue
about the whereabouts of his son: he agencies provided shifting accounts of secret agent, who worked for the plaque.
knew his son lived most of his time in the incident. Ahmed was said to be country’s Special Operations Executive Noor’s admirers are hopeful that it
Dhaka, but was unaware of where he armed with a “bomb­like device” and (SOE) that carried out covert work in will help build public understanding of
lived in the capital and what he exploding “cracker­like objects” inside Nazi­occupied Europe. Codenamed a woman whose extraordinary heroism
actually did for a living. the plane. “Madeleine”, she was eventually in the face of grave danger has only
“Sometimes he would come home, In instant comments, Home betrayed, captured by the Gestapo and begun to be recognised now (she had
grab some money and leave. He told Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the executed at the Dachau concentration originally trained to be a radio operator
our neighbours that he was an actor in suspect used a weapon to overpower a camp in 1944, at the age of just 30. She but joined the SOE and stayed on even
Dhaka,” Mr. Sardar said, alluding to his crew member. The “gun” that he was posthumously awarded the George after colleagues were killed).
role as a supporting actor in a Bengali carried into the aircraft turned out to Cross for bravery. While an attempt to make her the
film, Kobor, which means “Grave”. be a toy pistol as investigators dug face of a £50 note didn’t succeed, she’s
Ahmed adopted the name Mahibi deeper. The pistol — real or fake — Messages of support on a postage stamp and her bust was
Jahan for his Facebook profile, turned the spotlight back on airport An initial attempt to get the property unveiled by the Queen’s daughter,
identifying himself as an IT business security lapses in Bangladesh, a where Noor lived recognised had Princess Anne.
analyst. He claimed to have graduated country that has seen periodic terrorist failed. Soon after the publication of a “I love blue plaques,” says Ms. Basu.
from Dhaka University and that he was attacks, including the 2016 assaults on biography on her in 2006, Shrabani “I love the thought of tourists walking
living in the U.K. His family said he a Dhaka restaurant visited by Basu, the author, had gone through the round London, saying, ‘Oh, this is
studied in a madrasa. foreigners. Bangladesh now process of attempting to get her a blue where Virginia Woolf or Dickens lived’
investigates how the man even with a plaque, encouraged by messages of — the plaques bring a person to life.
Multiple allegations “toy gun” passed through the airport support she’d received from members You stop and think, ‘She might have
Ahmed had borrowed money from his security screening, which has been of the public about the then little looked out of that window’, or you can
neighbours on the pretext of sending it tightened since the nation’s worst known heroine. But a year later, the envisage her walking out of that door.
abroad for unknown purposes and terrorist attack. application was rejected, with the way [The address] 4 Taviton Street is the
even faked his own “abduction” to Mr. Sardar had initially refused to in which Noor had spent time in the place I most associated with Noor. She
extract funds from his father. His name receive the coffin containing the body property not quite fitting the criteria, grew up in the area, this is where she
ended up in the RAB’s crime database. of his son, as the family was ashamed much to the frustration of Ms. Basu. came to stay between training. This is
He was arrested by the RAB in an of his wrongdoings. After hours of “They said the house wasn’t really where they wrote to Noor when she
abduction case when he was just 18 hesitation, he received the body after her house and she wasn’t really there went missing and this is where news of
years old. The allegations stacked an autopsy at the Chittagong Medical but it was her mother’s house and she her death came to the family... But I
against him by the family of his former College Hospital and took the coffin to wasn’t there all the time like to think of Noor coming out of that
wife were graver still. He was his birthplace for burial. because she was out at door, and walking to the park in
associated with “top “An unruly son and it hurts. He country houses being Gordon Square and sitting on the
criminals” in his brought shame on my family,” Mr. trained,” says Ms. Basu, bench, or going to the library or
hometown, a claim that Sardar said. “Over the years, I’ve kept museum.”

Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka Vidya Ram is The Hindu’s London correspondent