It was around 3am yesterday. Some villagers of Dakkhin Saljana under Shibaloy police station in Manikganj heard loud noise from a road. Coming out of houses, they found some five unknown persons with torches trying to rescue their microbus trapped in the muddy road.
Later, the locals came together to the spot suspecting them to be robbers, and after enquiry, found them including the driver to be members of the Rapid Action Battalion. However, none of them had uniform.
Eyewitness Habibur Rahman, 30, said: “We did not see them before. Their disposition was suspicious since they were trying to rescue the vehicle with the help of a seesaw, which was brought from a nearby house without informing the dwellers. So, first we took them as robbers.
“One of them who claimed to be a Major-ranked official told us that they were from RAB’s intelligence wing and going to Faridpur. But all of them were in plain clothes.”
After the arrival of police within around one hour upon information provided by the locals, some more RAB persons came to the spot – situated near Nayakandi Bazar. The five and nine RAB members who came later were taken to the police station around 6am.
OC of Shibaloy police Rakibuzzaman said: “Firstly, they were five in number. Later, nine more RAB members arrived at the scene. Of them, three were wearing RAB-inscribed jackets. We have 14 RAB members enlisted in our directory.”
However, the locals claim that four RAB men came to the spot on foot later, not nine.
According to the Shibaloy police, the five RAB members are Maj HM Selimuzzaman, Lt Sarfaraz, driver Lance Corporal Waaz Uddin, Lance Corporal Alamgir and soldier Shafique.
The nine other members are Deputy Assistant Director Enamul, Sergeant A Alim, SI Hanif, ASI Yunus, Corporal Kabirul, Corporal Rafique, Soldier Ajibul, and soldiers Didar and Shahabur.
It was also found that neither the local people nor the police were aware of the reason behind the RAB members’ movement in that particular area and their destination.
The OC said: “The RAB informed us that they were patrolling in the area. We were not informed about any further details. Therefore, we do not know why they came and where they were going.”
The local people said it was the first time they had seen RAB members in the village. The elite force members claimed that they had been heading for Faridpur but used that road mistakenly.
There was another confusion regarding the number of firearms recovered from the RAB men.
According to the police, they recovered three pistols, 21 round bullets and a black microbus having a number plate “Dhaka Metro Cha 53-4792.”
But the witnesses said except for the driver, there had been four pistols with the four RAB members.
Witness Habibur said while he was leaving the spot, the rear door of the NOAH microbus opened itself. “When I went close to the door, I saw a switched-on laptop and discovered my photo on its screen. As I moved aside, the photo was not there.
“I saw three loaded bags, a large brown-coloured envelope and the laptop inside the microbus,” he said. There was no one else inside the vehicle.
He suggested that a video camera might be functioning either in the laptop or anywhere inside the microbus.
“It made us very much concerned about them. The police came to the spot swiftly and left the place in a hurry along with the RAB men,” said Harun, another witness who is the son of local Union Parishad member Neel Chan Dhali.
“The Major-ranked person did not look like an officer at all considering his disposition. He and the four other members were wearing T-shirts, pants and leather sandal,” he added.
Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Md Wahiduzzaman said: “The first five RAB members informed us that they were from the RAB headquarters while the rest from RAB 4.”
They were brought to the police station around 6am, he said. “We handed all of them over to RAB 4 Commander Md Foyzul Islam Mandal around 8:30 am,” the official added.
RAB’s Media Wing Director Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “Neither the RAB men were confined by the villagers nor detained by the Shibaloy police. The RAB men took shelter at the Shibaloy police station as their microbus faced faulty on the way to Faridpur to conduct an operation.”
