Villagers in Shibaloy upazila of Manikganj have confined 14 members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) suspecting them as robbers early Wednesday.
Later, they were handed them over to Shibaloy police, Rakibizzaman, officer-in-charge of Shibaloy police station told the Dhaka Tribune.
Later on Wednesday morning, Shibaloy police handed them over to RAB-4, the OC said.
The confined RAB members include Major HM Salimuzzaman, Lt Sarfaraj, DAD Enamul, Sergeant Abdul Halim, SI Hanif, ASI Yunus, Corporate Kabirul, Corporate Rafiq, Lt Corporate Wazuddin, Lt Corporate Alamgir, soldiers Shafiq, Azibul, Didar, police constable Sahabur, the OC said .
Villagers who were guarding Saljana village held the RAB men at 2am, suspecting them to be robbers, he said.
They were held as doubts created among the villagers over their identities.
Rakib said: “A microbus stopped on Saljana village road due to hole and five passengers of the microbus got down.”
“During the time, they introduced them as Rab men replying to villagers’ query.”
“They will go to Faridpur through the village,” they said.
Half an hour later, nine more people reached to the spot on foot. Replying to query, they told the villagers that they went to the village in an operation, the OC said.
Their contradictory statements created doubts whether they were RAB members or not. Later, locals called Shibaloy police and handed them over to them.
RAB Media Wing Director Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: "Neither the RAB men were confined by villagers nor detained by Shibaloy police in Manikganj."
"The RAB men took shelter to Shibaloy police station as their microbus faced faulty on the way at night."