Faruk Ahmed alias Panama Faruk, an activist of Jubo League, was killed yesterday in an alleged “gunfight” with the Rapid Action Battalion at Barisal city’s Chawk Bazar area.
Captain Abul Bashar, officer (operation) of RAB-8, said the elite force had intensified security and set up check posts at different points of the city, after a detective branch constable was injured by miscreants at the Rupatali check post on Sunday.
Early yesterday morning, the RAB team at the check post in Chawker Pol area, commanded by Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of RAB-8 Nazir Hossain Faruki, tried to stop an approaching group of young men to carry out a search.
The young men, however, allegedly opened fire on the law enforcers and both sides engaged in a “gunfight” at about 6:15am.
The miscreants managed to flee, but left a body at the scene that was later identified by the locals to be of Panama Faruk, Captain Bashar added.
RAB DAD Faruki received a minor injury after a bullet from the miscreants hit his bullet-proof jacket, while the microbus that carried the RAB forces was also hit, said Lt Com Gulzar, who is in charge of RAB-8 media wing.
RAB recovered two pistols, one sawed-off shotgun, one pipe gun, two loaded pistol magazines, three sharp weapons, and a large number of cartridges and bullets, Lt Com Gulzar added.
Kotwali police station Officer-in-Charge Shakhawat Hossain said Faruk Ahmed alias Panama Faruk was a listed top criminal, accused in more than a dozen cases of murder, extortion, grabbing public and private properties and other criminal activities.
An autopsy was carried out on Faruk’s body at the Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital, before it was handed over to his family.
Faruk’s father Yaqub Ali, 70, said he spoke to his son on the phone at around 6:10am yesterday after Faruk, accompanied by his friends, had arrived at Barisal from Dhaka on a launch. Later at 6:25am, Monir, a friend of Faruk, phoned Yaqub and said he had managed to flee after the RAB had nabbed Faruk.
The father demanded justice for the death of his son without any trial.
Drawing his alias from his family-owned business called Panama Traders at the city’s Bazar Road area, Faruk Ahmed became notorious as “Panama Faruk” in 1998, according to police record.
Police said Faruk, along with his brother Mahbubur Rahman Chhokku, formed the criminal gang Panama Bahini and created a reign of terror in the city under the banner of Jubo League, as well as carrying out an attack at Barisal Press Club in 1999.
The brothers went into hiding after the BNP-led alliance came to power in 2001, but Faruk returned from India after the AL-led government came to power in 2008 and managed bails from the court in most of the cases against him.
