Twelve police members were injured in a gunfight with an organized group of criminals during an operation in Raozan, Chittagong, on Wednesday night, as police later arrested a wounded suspected criminal and recovered firearms and a large cache of ammunition and locally made weapons.
The arrested man, identified as Dildar Hossain, 37, was found wounded at the scene. Police recovered two firearms, 119 rounds of China rifle ammunition, lead cartridges and other locally made weapons from his custody and locations he showed them.
The incident took place at around 10:40pm on Wednesday in the South Kadolpur Joynagar Barua Para area of Ward 9 under Kadolpur Union No 8 of Raozan police station.
Chittagong Superintendent of Police (SP) Masud Alam confirmed the information at a press conference held at the district police superintendent’s office at noon on Thursday, October 1.
The SP said police conducted the operation against an organized criminal group involved in extortion and criminal activities in the Kadolpur Union area. The operation was launched to arrest members of the group led by Jane Alam alias Dakat Alam and Mohammad Aziz alias Aziz Boss.
Masud Alam said members of the group had been demanding and collecting extortion money from various individuals and institutions for a long time.
Most recently, on September 25, they went to the house of a man named Abu Bakkar Chowdhury and demanded extortion money. After verifying the complaint and finding it to be true, police launched an operation on Wednesday night in front of Jane Alam alias Dakat Alam’s residence in South Kadolpur Joynagar Barua Para to arrest the extortionists and criminals.
He said that after sensing the presence of police, Jane Alam alias Dakat Alam, 42, Mohammad Aziz alias Aziz Boss, 52, Dildar Hossain, 37, Rubel, 27, Mamun-or-Rashid alias Mamun, 35, and Bacha, 45, along with several others inside the house opened fire indiscriminately at police.
Masud Alam said police also returned fire in self-defense. At one point, an exchange of gunfire took place between the 2 sides.
The injured police members were SI Md Jannatun Naeem Rajan, SI Md Khorshed Alam, SI Md Bayezid Mridha, SI Md Jahangir Alam, ASI Md Jewel Chandra Biswas and ASI Md Rabiul Hossain, along with 6 others.
He said police detained Dildar Hossain in a wounded condition during the operation. However, taking advantage of the presence of police and the gunfight, the others fled the scene.
Police later recovered a large quantity of weapons and ammunition from Dildar Hossain’s custody and locations shown by him.
The recovered weapons included 1 DBBL (double-barrel gun), 1 SBBL (single-barrel cut gun), 119 rounds of China rifle ammunition, 6 lead cartridges, 4 ramdas, 2 katis and 2 ammunition holders.
The police official further said the preliminary investigation found information that the arrested person and his absconding associates were organized and armed criminals involved in various criminal activities.
Earlier, in the early hours of Tuesday, September 29, police arrested 3 people with weapons while they were allegedly preparing to commit a robbery in the Kadolpur area.
Police recovered 1 locally made LG, 2 lead cartridges, 1 ramda and 1 knife from them. Two separate cases were filed over the incident under charges of preparing to commit robbery and the Arms Act.
