3 killed in ‘gunfights’

An accused in multiple cases was killed yesterday in a “shootout” with law enforcers in Jashore, while two suspected robbers were killed allegedly when two rival criminal gangs exchanged fire.  

In Jashore, the dead was identified as Shishir Ghosh, 32, a resident of the town’s Sasthitola area.

Shishir’s family, however, have alleged that police picked up Shishir from in front of his house and killed him just hours later.

Sunil Ghosh, Shishir’s uncle and a local journalist, said a team of the detective branch (DB) of police picked Shishir up from on Tuesday around 8:30pm.

“In the name of recovering arms, they took him near a brick kiln in Mahidia area and shot him dead. They then left his body at the hospital,” Sunil said.

“I had called the DB’s officer-in-charge [OC] over phone [after Shishir was taken] and he said nothing would happen to Shishir and that they just took him for questioning. But I later found his dead body at the hospital,” Sunil said, adding that he would file a murder case in court against the police officers.

He wrote a Facebook post in this regard yesterday morning and sought attention of the government and human rights organisations to take action against the law enforcers.

After receiving the body, the family members went in front of Jashore Press Club where they spoke to journalists.

Denying the family’s allegations, Md Moniruzzaman, OC of Kotwali Police Station, said Shishir was a listed criminal and there are at least 17 cases against him on charges including murder, possession of arms and explosives, and extortion, he added.

Police claimed that a DB team detained Shishir around 10:00pm on Tuesday from the town’s Chicken Farm area. It recovered four crude bombs from his possessions and then filed a case under the explosives act against him, the OC claimed.

Shishir allegedly admitted possessing firearms during primary interrogation.

Later, Kotwali police and DB took Shishir to Mahidia area near a Brick Kiln to recover the firearms.

“Sensing the presence of law enforcers, his associates opened fire. Policemen then retaliated, triggering a gunfight,” the OC claimed.

Shishir was later found on the spot with bullet wounds and was taken to Jashore General Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Police claimed to have recovered a pistol and two bullets from the spot.

Shishir’s uncle Sunil said there were 10 to 12 cases filed against Shishir, but he was on bail in all of them and that there was no arrest warrant against him.

“Earlier in 2017, police picked him up and shot him on his leg. But this time, they shot him on the head,” Sunil said.

Meanwhile in Bogura, two suspected robbers were killed in what police described as a turf war between two criminal gangs in Sherpur upazila.

Officer-in-charge of Sherpur Police Station Humayun Kabir claimed the dead, Dhanesh alias Sukumar, 38, and Afzal Hossain, 55, belonged to two different robbery gangs who got into a gunfight on the eastern side of the Bhabanipur bridge area around 1:30am.

“As we reached the scene, we found the two men on the ground with bullet wounds. They were declared dead after being taken to the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College,” said Sonaton Chakraborty, additional superintendent of police in Bogura.

Their identities were later confirmed through police’s Crime Data Management System, he added.

Police claimed to have recovered two firearms and ammunition from the scene.

According to police, both Dhanesh, from Gaibandha, and Afzal, from Natore, were wanted in several cases over robbery and extortion. Afzal was charged with murder as well.

Despite concerns from human rights defenders, deaths in alleged gunfights have been going on unabated as at least 198 people were killed in “gunfights” with law enforcers between just January and June this year, according to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra.