BNP leader, suspected mugger killed

An upazila-level BNP leader and a suspected mugger were killed in “shootouts” with police in Satkhira and the capital early yesterday.
The dead, Sheikh Abdul Halim alias Biplob, 39, was assistant general secretary of Tala upazila unit BNP in Satkhira and also general secretary of Jalalpur union unit of the party.
The victim in the capital is Gias Uddin alias Apan, 30. With the latest death, four people have been killed in three weeks in incidents of “gunfights” in the city.
Our Kushtia correspondent reports: Biplob was a demonstrator of computer studies at Shalikha Degree College.
Police, however, claimed the deceased was involved in outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-ML) faction Janajuddho and accused in five cases, including two for murder. He was on bail in all the cases.
Biplob, said law enforcers, had been absconding since 2009 after he was accused of two murder charges.

Abu Bakar Siddiqui, officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station, said police conducted a raid at Islamkati-Sujanshah Passenger Shed on Tala-Patkelghata road around 3:00am, acting on a tip-off that a group of Janajuddho cadres was holding a secret meeting there.
Sensing the presence of law enforcers, the outlaws blasted crude bombs. Police returned fire, triggering a “gunfight” between the outlaws and cops.
Biplob was hurt by bullets while his cohorts managed to flee the scene. Police took him to Satkhira Sadar Hospital where he died later.
Law enforcers claimed they recovered a few sharp weapons from the spot.
An assistant professor of mathematics department at Shalikha Degree College, victim's elder brother Sheikh Jahangir Alam said Biplob was avoiding living in his house as police were looking for him in two murder cases.
Cops stormed into the house of one Safed Ali at Dohar village around 1:00am and picked up Biplob, Jahangir said, quoting Safed.
“Four hours later, we came to know that Biplob was taken to Satkhira Sadar Hospital,” Emdad, another brother of Biplob, told journalists.
OC Abu Bakar, however, denied the allegation of picking up Biplob.
Habibul Islam Habib, former BNP lawmaker from Satkhira-1, termed the incident a cool-blooded murder.
“I want a judicial inquiry into the incident and the police claim that Biplob was an outlaw,” Habib, also a relative of Biplob, told this newspaper over the phone.
'SHOOTOUT' IN CAPITAL
Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said Apan was killed in a “gunfight” with members of Detective Branch of police in the capital's Hatirjheel.
Detectives were patrolling the area early yesterday after receiving information that a group of muggers were planning to commit a crime there.  
Sensing the presence of cops, criminals opened fire on lawmen. The DB men retaliated with shots, triggering the “shootout” around 3:30am, added Masudur.
Later, police took the injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where physicians declared him dead around 4:30am. Apan received five to six bullets in his chest, said morgue sources.
The DMP DC claimed detectives seized a car, a pistol and four bullets from the spot.
Apan allegedly kidnapped a 19-year-old college girl and raped her in a car at Sector-4 in the capital's Uttara on July 3, he mentioned.
Criminals kidnapped the girl while she along with her mother and fiancé was on her way home. During the kidnap, the goons killed a security guard of a nearby building.
A listed mugger, Apan used to mug people using private cars in posh areas in the capital, claimed Shahadat Hossain, officer-in-charge of Uttara East Police Station. The deceased was once arrested by Dhanmondi police in 2009.
The OC took the girl and her mother to the DMCH morgue to ascertain whether the deceased had kidnapped and raped her.
Neither of them, however, said anything after visiting the corpse, added Shahadat.
Apan's widow Jasmine Begum, however, refuted the police claim that he was involved in the rape incident.
He was not even in Dhaka when the incident took place, she claimed.
"He came from our village home in Noakhali's Senbag only three days ago. He was talking to me over the phone around 11am yesterday [Thursday] and then I heard some scuffling noise on his end. The call was disconnected and the phone had been switched off since then," Jasmine said last night.