Five youths were killed in a reported 'gunfight' with the Rapid Action Battalion at Uttara in Dhaka on Friday night.
Witnesses said they had heard three gunshots at about 8:45pm, when six members of the battalion on three motorbikes were chasing a car on Sonargaon-Janapath near Mascot Plaza at Uttara. The battalion forced the car to stop in front of a branch of Dutch-Bangla Bank and fired shots.
The battalion personnel then dragged out the bodies of three youths from the car. Another youth was also found dead by the car, the witnesses said.
A fifth youth was rushed to Bangladesh Medical College Hospital at Uttara with bullet wounds where he died later on.
All the victims, aged between 20 and 25, were hit by bullets in the head and chest, said sources at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where the bodies were sent for autopsy.
The battalion arrested two at the spot.
RAB intelligence wing director Ziaul Ashan, who visited the spot, told New Age the battalion members went to the Sonargaon-Janapath, a road at Uttara, on a tip-off.
The battalion members detained two youths, who were sitting at a makeshift tea-stall, and waited there, on information that a car carrying muggers would come to join the two, said Ziaul.
As soon as the car reached the spot, the RAB men stopped it and the people inside opened fire on them triggering a gunfight, he said, adding that four were killed on the spot and another in the hospital.
Of the deceased, two were identified as Hasan, 21, ring leader of Hasan group of Tongi, and Sabuj, 21, and the arrestees were Imran, 18, and Saidur Rahman, 20, said Ziaul.
He said the identity of the car owner was yet to be known.
Arrested Saidur, who talked to media in RAB custody, said that Hasan had persuaded him to accompany the gang and picked him from in front of the House Building area at Uttara and together they headed for Balurmath of Section 13 at Uttara for mugging.
Saidur claimed that he knew none but Hasan in the car.
The Uttara police early today said that the battalion was yet to hand over the two arrested to them.
The battalion director general Mukhlesur Rahman told Bangladesh Sangbad Sangshta, 'The RAB rushed to the scene at around 9:20pm on a tip-off … and sensing danger the gangsters fired gunshots prompting our men to retaliate.'
The RAB personnel seized the car and some firearms from the spot.
The latest incident took to 43 the number of people killed extrajudicially in
so-called 'crossfire,' 'gunfight' or 'encounter' after January 1.
Two hundred and
seventy-three people have fallen victim to extrajudicial killing by law enforcers since 6 January, 2009 when Awami
League-led government assumed office with a pledge to put an end to such killings.
Source : New Age
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