How Hasina's Escape Was Kept Under the Radar
When the Air Force transport plane carrying Sheikh Hasina departed from Dhaka on August 5, it did so as a training flight, with its transponders turned off to obscure its flight path and location. These transponders, which broadcast details like location, heading, altitude, and speed, remained off until the plane neared Indian airspace over West Bengal, sources told *The Daily Star*.
A copy of flight AJAX1431’s progress strip from air traffic control (ATC), obtained by the newspaper, shows the plane took off from Bangabandhu Airbase at 3:09 PM. Just 30 minutes prior, tens of thousands of protesters had taken control of Gono Bhaban, Hasina’s official residence at the time.
Initially scheduled to address the nation at 2:00 PM to announce Hasina’s resignation, Army Chief Waker Uz Zaman postponed his address until 4:00 PM. In an interview with a New York-based media outlet, he revealed he was unaware of Hasina's departure, suggesting that her life might have been in danger had she remained in the country.
The plane’s transponders were activated only at waypoint "BEMAK," on the Dhaka-Kolkata flight path, at which point the aircraft appeared on radar. It initially headed towards Kolkata but then diverted to Hindon Air Force Base near Delhi to minimize time in Bangladesh’s airspace. Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar confirmed Hasina had sought approval to enter India on short notice.
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Flight AJAX1431 was assigned squawk code 4131 for identification within Indian airspace, and upon entering, was reportedly escorted by two Dassault Rafale fighter jets from an Indian airbase. Neither Hasina nor her sister, Sheikh Rehana, passed through immigration in Dhaka before their departure, and after landing in India, Hasina was taken to a government-provided safe house in Noida.
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