Conflicting statements have emerged about the identity of the two men killed in an alleged gunfight with law enforcers in the early hours of yesterday in the capital’s Motijheel area.
While police said they were still to be identified, the family of the two deceased had claimed that they were leaders of the ruling party’s labour front.
There are also some confusions about how they died. While police said they were killed in a “gunfight,” a witness said policemen killed them with gunshots.
According to the witness, whose identity we are not disclosing for security reasons, around 2:15am yesterday, police cordoned off six men, travelling on two motorbikes in front of the T&T school in Motijheel.
“The bikers opened fire at police and hurled a cocktail. In reply, police also opened fire. I heard at least 40 rounds of gunshots,” said the witness, who is a resident of the adjacent AGB Colony and watched the entire incident from his bedroom window.
“After the gunfire exchange, I saw two people fall on the road. Police left the two bodies there and took the four others on a van. A little later, police came back and took away the bodies,” the witness said.
He claimed that he had also seen police dump sand onto the road to cover the blood stains.
Yesterday, SI Nripen Kumer Bhoumik from the Detective Branch of Police filed two cases in connection with the incident.
According to one of the first information reports (FIRs), police admitted that there was a gunfight in which they fired 40 rounds, but also said they did not kill the two; rather they were killed by bullets fired from the guns of the other “criminals.”
The FIR also says police are not yet sure about the identity of the deceased.
Md Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said: “They might have been planning a robbery. They attacked when police challenged them for gathering there at that hour and asked for identification.”
However, the families of the two deceased have already got the bodies from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
According to them, one is Zakir Hossain Akmal, 35, president of the Sayedabad unit of Sramik League; and the other is Ramzan Zabed, 35, general secretary of the same unit of the ruling party wing.
The families also said Ramzan had a motor parts business and Akmal was in the cloth trade. Ramzan’s sister Yarunnessa said her brother’s political rival Saiful Islam Kokhon, alias “Blade” Khokon, might have orchestrated the killing using his connections inside police.
“My brother told us once that if anything happened to him, then we should tell the police Blade Khokon’s name,” she said.
His wife Nusrat Jahan Jhorna said: “Khokhon and Khayer have connections in DB police. Police killed my husband for money.”
Interestingly, Khokon was with Ramzan and Akmal when they were allegedly killed. In fact he was among the four taken away by police after the incident and was reportedly freed later.
Jhorna said her husband had left home with Khokon and Babu on a motorcycle around 10:30pm Saturday and never came back.
Although police said they did not know the whereabouts of the four others that they had picked up from the spot and later freed, some of them, including Khokon, came to the DMCH yesterday to see the dead bodies of Ramzan and Akmal.
Khokon yesterday told journalists: “It seems police is involved in the matter. I do not have any conflict with Ramzan. A fair investigation is required into this incident.”
He, however, refused to make any comment on the fact that they were termed “absconding” in the FIRs.
Akmal’s wife Sabina Yasmin Dulu said: “My husband is a cloth merchant and also involved with the politics of the ruling party. Everyone in the area respects him a lot... I swear upon my son, my husband did not carry any weapon. He went out alone and did not even take his motorbike.”
According to the postmortem reports, the deceased received four to six bullet wounds in the face, chest, throat and ear.
Afjal Hossain, security guard of the T&T High School, told the Dhaka Tribune that on that night, he had heard several gunshots at around 2am. But he could not gather the courage to come out of the main gate of the school see what was going on.
DB police spokesman Masudur Rahman said: “DB police is not used by vested groups for their personal interests. The deceased are still unidentified and we are trying to dig out their identities and also criminal records.”