Two ‘drug dealers’ killed in ‘shootout’

Two suspected drug peddlers were killed in 'separate gunfights' with the BGB and Rab in Bandarban and Gazipur yesterday.

In Bandarban's Naikhyangchhari upazila,a suspected Rohingya drug peddler, Abdur Rahman, 25, was killed in a "gunfight" with the BGB.

"He belonged to Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar's Ukhia," said Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed, commanding officer (CO) of BGB-34.

The incident occurred Baishfari Godharbil area around 5:00am while a BGB team confronted a group of miscreants, the CO said, adding they opened fire, forcing the border guards to retaliate.

At one stage, Abdur was shot. After he was taken to hospital, doctors declared him dead, he said.

BGB claimed to have recovered 80,000 pieces of yaba pills and a locally-made firearm from the spot.

Meanwhile in Gazipur's Kashimpur area, an alleged drug peddler, Nurul Haque, 25, was killed in a "shootout" with Rab.

Nurul and a few others were carrying 1.7 lakh yaba pills from Cox's Bazar when the gunfight took place around 3:00am, said Md Kamruzzaman, assistant director of Rab-1.

On information that a consignment of drugs was being smuggled in, Rab set up a checkpost and signaled a truck to stop but its driver tried to speed up and the criminals opened fire, he said, adding that when Rab fired back, Nurul was struck, while his cohorts fled. He was rushed to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Rab claimed to have recovered all the yaba, a firearm, and some bullets from the spot and have seized the truck. A Rab man was injured in the incident, it added.

In another case, Rab arrested a suspected drug peddler, Puatia Majhi, 40, with one lakh yaba pills in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf upazila on Sunday.

After he confessed to his crime during interrogation, he was handed over to Teknaf police, Mohammad Hasan Mamun, media officer of Rab said.

(Our correspondents from Bandarban, Gazipur and Cox's Bazar contributed to the report.)