The US State Department on Sunday expressed concern about Belarus’s involvement in forcing a flight bound to Lithuania to land in Minsk, carrying a wanted opposition activist.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken wrote on Twitter that the country “strongly condemned the brazen and shocking act”.

The tweet read, “We strongly condemn the Lukashenka regime’s brazen and shocking act to divert a commercial flight and arrest a journalist. We demand an international investigation and are coordinating with our partners on next steps. The United States stands with the people of Belarus.”

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Blinken’s statements read, “Initial reports suggesting the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the plane are deeply concerning and require full investigation”, reported AFP.

Roman Protasevich, an opposition blogger who has been exiled in Poland, was detained by the authorities after the flight from Athens was forced land, reported AFP quoting Belarusian state television information.

After finally landing in Vilnius several hours after the scheduled time of arrival — without Protasevich — some passengers described seeing the blogger looking nervous as the flight was diverted to Belarus.

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Minsk’s airport released a statement earlier saying the plane had to make an emergency landing there at 1215 GMT following a bomb scare.

An order was given by Alexander Lukashenko’s press service, according to their Telegram channel, to divert the flight. Moreover, a Mig-29 fighter jet was ordered to accompany the passenger plane.