Man dies during Rab raid in city

A man died during a raid by the Rapid Action Battalion in the capital's Moghbazar last night.

The victim's brother alleged he died from Rab torture, but the elite force denied it.

Rab said the victim, Mainuddin Bhuiyan Biplob, 43, fell unconscious during their raid to arrest some drug peddlers in the area around 9:00pm. He was taken to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead.

But Biplob's brother Newazuddin Bhuiyan Manob told this correspondent, “We saw wounds in his [Biplob's] forehead.”

Biplob, an employee of a private organisation, was a resident of Pearabagh.

Manob said his brother had informed the Rab members of his heart problem when they tried to bring him out of the building, where he went with a friend.

In the raid, Rab arrested three people -- Biplob, Alam and Zakir. Of them, Alam, the house owner, is an alleged drug peddler.

Contacted, Saiful Islam Saif, ASP of Rab-3, denied that Biplob died from torture and insisted that he died after he had fainted.

The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College morgue for an autopsy.