Villagers confine 4 Rab men, suspecting robbers

Locals caught four plainclothes Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) men in Belaichandi Bazar of Parbatipur upazila under the district on Monday evening, suspecting them as robbers during an anti-drug raid.

"Eight plainclothes members of Dinajpur Rab – 13 riding on four motorcycles came to Belaichandi Bazar and arrested Monwarul Aziz, 27, son of Md Anis of Chowdhurypara village, on charge of drug peddling," said Nur Mohammad Raza, chairman of Belaichandi Union Parishad.

As the Rab members stood near a local bus stand along with Aziz, he started shouting that fake Rab men caught him.

At this locals encircled the Rab members ad the latter fired bullets to drive away the mob.

Then the angry mob started throwing brickbats and confined them.

At around 10:00pm, Rab and police officials from Dinajpur, Rangpur and Parbatipur along with Parbatipur UNO Rahenul Islam went there and brought the situation under control.

At around 10:30pm high officials of Dinajpur Rab-13 left the area with plainclothes Rab men.

"There were several robbery incidents in this union recently. As the Rab members were in plain clothes and the motorcycles they used did not bear any registration number, people became suspicious," said UP chairman Nur Mohammad Raza.

Md Kuddus, deputy assistant director of Dinajpur Rab-13, filed two cases accusing 25 people including 12 identified ones with Parbatipur Police Station yesterday afternoon.

Bilaichandi UP chairman Nur Mohammad Raza, also joint secretary of Parbatipur upazila unit of Awami League, was made top accused in the case.

Local computer shop owner Md Abdul Wahab, 28, son of Mukul Shah of Belaichandi Burirhat village under Parbatipur upazila, went missing after the incident, said his family members and the UP chairman.

Later Rab handed Wahab over to Parbatipur Police Station and he was shown arrested in the case, said Mahmudul Alam, OC of the police station.

Kismat Hayat, commanding officer of Rab-13, said the incident on Monday night occurred due to a misunderstanding.

OC Mahmudul Alam said they are investigating the matter.