A local BNP leader and a sub-inspector of Kaliganj police station were killed after a covered van hit them during a night patrol in Kaliganj, Gazipur, early Friday.
Two other police personnel were injured, one of them critically. The driver of the covered van fled the scene.
The accident occurred in front of Kaliganj Government Shramik College in the Tumlia area on the Tongi-Ghorashal regional road around 3:30am on Friday.
Ashraful Islam, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Kaliganj police station, confirmed the incident.
The deceased BNP leader, Rafiqul Islam alias Rafiq Molla, 48, was the organising secretary of Ward 2 of Kaliganj municipality BNP. He was the son of late Waz Uddin of the Tumlia area.
The deceased police officer was Sub-Inspector Mizanur Rahman. The injured police personnel were also posted at Kaliganj police station. Constable Fazle Rabbi, who was driving, was taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital in Gazipur.
Additional Superintendent of Police for Kaliganj Circle Sheikh Muttazul Islam said a police team led by SI Mizanur Rahman was on patrol in front of Kaliganj Government Shramik College that night.
The officers had stopped by the roadside and were questioning several suspicious individuals when an unidentified covered van hit them, leaving Mizanur Rahman, Police Sub-Inspector Jabed Omar, Constable Fazle Rabbi and BNP leader Rafiqul Islam seriously injured.
The van driver dragged Mizanur Rahman for nearly half a kilometre before leaving him by the roadside and fleeing towards Ghorashal.
A passerby and a rickshaw puller rescued the injured and took them to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex.
Mustafa Al Hossain, the on-duty physician at the health complex's emergency department, declared Rafiqul Islam dead at 3:55am.
Mizanur Rahman and Jabed Omar were later referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment. Mizanur was declared dead at 6:47am while undergoing treatment. Jabed remains under treatment at the hospital.
According to locals, police launched an operation around 3am to arrest Ohid Molla, an alleged drug trader from the Madhakhola area. After the arrest, the team was returning to the police station when they reached the college area.
Mizanur and the other officers were talking to local BNP leader Rafiqul Islam Molla, who was standing there, when the speeding covered van struck them.
Kaliganj police station Officer-in-Charge Zakir Hossain said no one had been arrested in connection with the incident, and the driver and vehicle had yet to be identified. Legal proceedings are underway.