2 detainees killed in alleged gunfight with police

Two men were killed in a reported gunfight with police in Rajarchhara of Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar early Friday, reports UNB.

Deceased Nur Mohammad, 40, son of a certain Azahar Mia of Nazir Para, and Nurul Amin, 35, son of Abdus Shukkur of Jaliapara in the upazila were drug traders, claimed the law enforcement.

Dipak Kumar Das, officer-in-charge of Teknaf police station, said police arrested Nur Mohammad and Nurul Amin from the upazila on Wednesday as both of them were wanted in a number of cases.

Later, a team of police along with the criminals conducted a drive in Rajarchhara area around 3:30am to arrest the other criminals.

Sensing presence of the law enforcement, the criminals opened fire on police, forcing them to fire back in self-defence, he added.

At one stage, Nurul Amin and Nur Mohammad were caught in the line of fire and died on the spot.

Five policemen were injured in the gunfight, the OC claimed.

Police recovered eight guns, 20,000 yaba pills and 10 cartridges from the spot.
Prothom Alo, however, could not verify the law enforcement’s version of the incident independently as no version was available immediately either from any witness or from any member of the victims’ families.

According to the human rights group, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a total of 421 people were killed in alleged gunfights, crossfires or shootouts with the law enforcement agencies in 2018.

In January and February of 2019, the number of such killing was 50, the rights body said on its website.