An activist of the Jamaat-e-Islami and two leaders of its student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir were killed in separate incidents of “gunfights” with the police in Jessore, Rajshahi and Comilla yesterday.
Shahbuddin Mufid, 22, information secretary of Shibir’s Rajshahi University unit, was killed when Shibir men launched a crude bomb attack on a police patrol car, the police claimed. Two Shibir leaders sustained bullet injuries and a police constable also sustained injuries allegedly during in the incident.
The incident took place in the early hours at Katakhali Shamsadipur in Rajshahi city’s Motihar. The injured were taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for treatment.
The deceased – Shahbuddin – was a fourth year honours student at Rajshahi University’s crops science and technology department. The injured Shibir leaders are – Habibur Rahman, president of Shibir’s Hobibur Rahman Hall, and Binodpur’s Shibir leader Mofizur Rahman.
Rajshahi Detective Branch’s Assistant Commissioner Iftekhayer Alam told reporters that during a drive to nab anarchists, some Shibir men launched a crude bomb attack on a police patrol team near the graveyard in Shamsadipur.
A constable – Mahbub – sustained injuries in the attack. Police retaliated with bullets that injured three Shibir men. Doctors declared Shahbuddhin dead after the bullet-hit men were taken to the RMCH.
Meanwhile, a press statement signed by Shibir’s city unit Publication Secretary Asaduzzaman claimed that the three Shibir men were returning from a wedding on a motorbike at around 9pm on Thursday, when they were arrested by the police. Later police shot Shahbuddin to death following torture and also injured the other two, the statement claimed.
Jessore ‘gunfight’
In Jessore, Shahidul Islam – who is reportedly an active Jamaat leader from Satkhira – was killed in a “gunfight” that ensued after the police approached a vehicle for a security check.
However, only hours before his death, Shahidul had allegedly fled from police custody along with another BNP activist.
The police claimed that Shahidul and “BNP activist” Abdul Majid – both reportedly accused in several cases filed with police stations in Satkhira sadar and Kolarowa upazilas – escaped from a police van while they were being transported to Jessore from Sharsha upazila on Thursday.
Soon after the incident, three police officials were closed to the Jessore Police Lines, the district’s Superintendent of Police Anisur Rahman had told journalists on Thursday night.
Later at around 2:30am yesterday, the incident of the “gunfight” took place, reports our Jessore correspondent.
“The police approached a microbus in front of Khonika picnic spot on Jessore-Khulna highway, sensing suspicious activities of the people inside the vehicle,” said Jessore Additional Superintendent of Police KM Ariful Hoque.
He added that the passengers of the microbus opened fire on law enforcers and hurled crude bombs at them. When the police fired back in retaliation, one of the passengers was injured while the other fled the scene.
The injured man was brought to the Jessore Medical College Hospital, where the duty doctor declared him dead; while Sharsha police station’s Assistant Sub-Inspector Shomen Biswas identified the deceased as Shahidul.
Mohammad Shahbuddin, publicity secretary of Jamaat’s district committee, quoted Satkhira leaders as claiming that Shahidul was an active member of Jamaat despite not having an official post at the party.
However, our Satkhira correspondent reported that Abdul Majid – who the Jessore police claimed was a “fugitive” - was shot in Kolarowa’s Thakurbari area early yesterday.
Briefing reporters, Sub-Inspector Kamal Hossain, information officer of Satkhira police, said a police team went to Kolarowa’s Thakurbari area following a tip-off about sabotage activities.
“When police reached the spot, the saboteurs started blasting crude bombs. Police retaliated by opening fire at them, and Jubo Dal Kolarowa municipality President Abdul Majid, 37, was hit with a bullet,” SI Kamal said, adding that two police members were injured as well.
Police later took Majid to Satkhira Sadar Hospital for treatment. The two police members were also taken there, but were released after treatment.
Police also recovered a firearm and several rounds of bullet shells from the scene, Kamal added.
However, the police did not comment about the Jessore police’s claim that Majid had earlier fled from their custody.
Majid, who is from Tulshidanga village in Kolarowa, is listed as accused in four cases, including one under the Explosives Act for attacking the motorcade of then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina.
Comilla ‘gunfight’
The president of Comilla’s Chouddogram upazila unit of Shibir – Sahab Uddin Patwary – was killed in a “gunfight” yesterday, the local police claimed.
Chouddogram police station Officer-in-Charge Uttam Kumar Chakrabarty said a group of around eight criminals were waiting near Comilla sadar upazila’s Lalbagh to carry out acts of sabotage, when they “attacked” a patrolling police van. After the police fired back in “self defence,” the perpetrators fled leaving Patwary lying at the scene with a gunshot wound to his head.
The Shibir leader was declared dead after being taken to Comilla Medical College Hospital. Two Constables – Nur Hossain and Mohsin – were also reportedly hurt during the “gunfight.”
However, Patwary’s sister Farzana Akhter told our Comilla correspondent that the police had deliberately killed her brother after detaining him earlier on Thursday from in front of their house in Chouddogram’s Chandishkora village.
Patwary, 28, was a fourth year honours student in the sociology department in Comilla’s Victoria College.
Earlier on Tuesday, an arson attack on a bus in Chouddogram killed at least eight people.
Following the incident, RAB chief Benazir Ahmed told a rally in the area that legal reprisal would be taken against the attackers. DIG of Chittagong range of police, Shafiqul Islam, had also claimed that the police had the capability to kill two to avenge every killing.