'Drug peddler' killed in Rab 'gunfight'
An alleged drug peddler was killed in a “gunfight” with Rapid Action Battalion at Motijheel in the capital early yesterday.
The dead, Sheikh Altaf Hossain alias Sagar, 37, was accused in many cases filed with different police stations in Dhaka for illegal firearms and drugs trading, Saiful Islam, operation officer of Rab-3, told The Daily Star.
Also an assistant superintendent of police, Saiful claimed that acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-3 raided Motijheel area for recovering firearms around 1:30am.
As soon as the team reached near Sadeque Hossain Khoka community centre in the area, five to six criminals, including Sagar, opened fire on the elite force members from a nearby car workshop. The Rab team retaliated by firing back, triggering the “gunfight”, according to Saiful.
At one stage, Sagar was shot. Doctors of Dhaka Medical College Hospital declared him dead on arrival.
Rab claimed to have recovered two pistols, six bullets, two private cars used for carrying illegal drugs and 1,204 bottles of Indian phensidyl syrup from the car workshop.
Sources at Dhaka Medical College morgue, where the autopsy was carried out, said at least 15 marks of bullet-wound were found on the body of Sagar.
Hailed from Bagerhat Sadar upazila, Sagar was living with his family in the capital's Jatrabari. Recently, he had gone into hiding, said locals at the morgue.
They also said Sagar was known as a drug peddler in Jatrabari and Motijheel areas.
Sagar's stepbrother Sheikh Rafiqul Islam, who lives in Bagerhat, last evening told The Daily Star over the phone that he learnt about the incident from a television news report.
He was on his way to Dhaka to receive the body.
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