Two suspected hijackers have been killed in a reported gunfight with the Detective branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in Dhaka’s Khilkhet area.
The incident happened in the Kuril Bishwa Road BRTC area around 2:30am on Monday.
DB’s Deputy Commissioner (DC-Gulshan division) Mashiur Rahman confirmed the matter and said that both the deceased were professional hijackers. They are identified as Nannu and Mosharoff.
Describing the incident, he said the miscreants were members of a dope gang and they disguised as passengers of CNG auto-rickshaw, private car, or microbus to hijack people between Mohakhali and Kuril Bishwa Road flyover area, and also on the 300-feet road leading to Purbachal.
In recent times, police and detectives have arrested many such hijackers from those areas in different raids. As the number of such incidents increased there, police and detectives have started collecting information as well as patrolling at night, he added.
Mashiur said, acting on a tip-off that a group of hijackers is roaming in the Khilkhet area with an auto-rickshaw to commit a crime, multiple teams of DB police, led by the DC, took position at different places between Khilkhet and 300-feet road from around 11pm on Sunday.
Around 2:30 am, a CNG autorickshaw was moving fast towards the Khilkhet flyover and a team of DB police signalled it to stop. The vehicle ignored the signal and started crossing the flyover.
Later, the DB police team chased the CNG auto-rickshaw with their microbus. At a point, the vehicle stopped, the duo came out and started firing at the police. The police also had to fire back in self-defence, he added.
The DC also said the two men sustained bullet injuries and were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), where on-duty doctors declared them dead.
However, the DB police managed to arrest their associates -- the CNG auto rickshaw driver Shafiqul and another one named Siddique who was sitting beside the driver.
During the operation, two members of the police were also injured, by falling down and hitting another vehicle, who received primary treatment from the Central Police Hospital, he added.
The arrestees -- CNG auto rickshaw driver Shafiqul and another one named Siddique | Collected
In the preliminary interrogation, Shafiq and Siddique identified the deceased as Nannu and Mosharoff. They said Nannu used to be a taxi cab driver and was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for killing a passenger.
Meanwhile, Mosharoff was convicted and imprisoned in several cases. Shafiq and Siddique were also charged earlier for carrying yaba pills and phensedyl, said the official.
For a long time, these four have been hiring a CNG autorickshaw from the owners for a half or full day. Besides regular transport service, they doped some of the passengers for hijacking and later pushed them out of the vehicle.
If the passengers tried to resist, they were strangled to death and the bodies were dumped somewhere on the 300-feet road, he added.
The arrestees also confessed that on June 17, they picked up a small businessman named Harun near Kurmitola General Hospital. They doped him and beat him up before hijacking.
As Harun tried to resist, Nannu and Mosharoff strangled him with a towel until he died by bleeding from his nose and ears. Later, they threw the body on the 300-feet road near the Australian International School, said Mashiur.
Nannu and Mosharoff’s bodies are in Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy. However, no family member came or claimed the bodies so far, he added.
Detectives also seized a foreign pistol, a magazine, two rounds of bullets, a machete, a knife, a tube of ointment – used for doping - from under the seat of the CNG, a towel, two mobile phones, and the CNG auto-rickshaw from the spot.
