The morning shock came as villagers found one of the bodies hanging upside down from a roadside tree in Bamongram village in Nandigram upazila of Bogra, not far away from the northwestern district of Naogaon.

The rest were not found until 7:00pm although the militant operatives of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) led by dreaded operations commander Bangla Bhai boasted that they had also met the same fate.

Police denied the latest episode of vigilante action despite repeated announcement of the lynching by loudspeaker and discovery of the body.

The rough justice of the Islamist outfit, blamed for killing at least eight outlaws including yesterday's three since April 1, underlines the jungle rule in the northwest.

Locals said they saw a gang of up to 12 coming in a white microbus from Kaliganj direction and moved back after hanging the body from the tree on Singra-Nandigram Road.

The operatives named the victim Abdul Qaiyum, better known as Badshah Mia, son of Abdul Kader, and branded him as a top leader of the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP).

Witnesses said as a 'show of respect' to the villagers, who pleaded that the outlaws not be slaughtered, the JMJB death squad beat them dead. The tortured groans of the victims were relayed by loudspeaker to terrorise the neighbourhood. His legs tied, Badshah in lungi bore the hallmarks of torture in captivity.

The Daily Star alerted Naogaon Superintendent of Police (SP) Fazlur Rahman late Wednesday night that the vigilante outfit captured four 'outlaws' and was planning to slaughter them in public in the morning.

The SP said he or his force had no information about such a lynching scheme and brushed aside The Daily Star's information as baseless.

But the villagers will not forget the grisly scene they witnessed as scores of operatives beat them up with hockey sticks and poles for hours in Kaligram Vetigram village in Atrai of Naogaon.

Hundreds of people flocked to the scene as the news spread before Nandigram police recovered the body of Badshah and sent it to Bogra town for autopsy.

APPARENT BACKLASH

The self-styled JMJB men picked up Badshah, Bashar and Khejur from Simba village in Raninagar and Ala from Sharia village in Atrai in Naogaon Wednesday noon in apparent backlash two days after the PBCP killed two JMJB cadres.

The outfit members announced that they would slaughter Badsha, Bashar and Khejur in public at 10:00am. Ala, believed to have roles in a string of killings, was learnt to be alive until yesterday afternoon.

Hours after the killings, the SP in Naogaon and Additional SP Harunar Rashid told The Daily Star that they were not aware of such news.

"But we have heard from villagers that the JMJB men have picked up four outlaws," the ASP said, adding he did not find proof of it.

But Bogra SP Kazi Mortaz Ahmed confirmed the body recovery but said: "Without a probe, it is impossible for me to say who killed him."

Raninagar residents linked Badshah as a member of the PBCP killing squad and blamed him for the killing of as many as 50 people including JMJB members Nazrul, Abdur Rashid, Zillur Rahman and Abdul Majid.

They also believe Bashar and Khejur had roles in a series of other killings.

The JMJB men denied killing anyone yesterday and told journalists that angry relatives of the slain victims and other local people killed the three outlaws.

They expressed their ignorance about the missing bodies. "I don't know what the agitated people have done to them," a JMJB leader said.