Bangla Bhai's close aide killed

An alleged outlaw was killed in a "shootout" with Rapid Action Battalion in Bagmara upazila of the district early yesterday.
Identifying him as Mostafizur Rahman alias Killer Mostaq, Rab said he had been a close aide to the executed leader of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who had spread Islamic militancy in the country under the banned organisation.
Mostaq has been leading the banned outfit Purba Banglar Communist Party (Red flag), Bagmara unit, Rab sources said.
According to a press release issued by Rab yesterday, a team of Rab-5 on information raided Goalkandi village around 2:45am when a gang of outlaws were holding a meeting there for committing "subversive activities".
Seeing the Rab members, the gang started firing on them. The Rab men fired back and at one stage the outlaws, except for Mostaq who was bullet hit, managed to flee.
He was rushed to the upazila health complex where doctors declared him dead, the press release says. At least 15 bullets were exchanged during the gunfight, Rab said in the press release.
Rab claimed that two of its members had also been injured and admitted to a local hospital.
Following the incident, two Pakistan-made revolvers, 12 bullets, a single-barrel gun, three machetes, eight bullet shells, a magazine and 12 bottles of phensedyl were recovered from the scene, Rab said.
Mostaq, a resident of Polashi village and a marriage registrar by profession, was an accused in eight criminal cases including four filed for murders.
He had joined JMB in 2004 as an aide to the leader of the banned organisation Bangla Bhai. Rab officials said Mostaq had served as the operations commander of JMB's Bagmara unit. .
Activities of PBCP were scaled down in Bagmara following the deaths of its regional commanders Ratan alias Titas and Elahi Bux Mithu in separate shootouts in 2010. But Rab's intelligence unit has recently learnt that some members of the outfit under the leadership of Mostaq have been reorganising the group, according to the press release.
It also says Bangla Bhai, who had tortured several people to death and maimed many in 2004, had often stayed at the house of Mostaq.