Chased by DB men, 4 drown in river

At least four suspected gamblers drowned after they jumped into a river to escape from chasing detectives on Wednesday evening in Dinajpur.
Following the incident, 10 members of Detective Branch (DB) of Police were closed to Dinajpur Police Lines yesterday afternoon for their alleged involvement in the incident. A three-member probe committee led by ASP of Dinajpur Habibur Rahman Pramanik was also formed.
The dead were identified as Md Jamal Hossain Mini, 40; Shabuj Saha, 33; Awlad Hossain, 33; and Ismail Hossain, 28.
Police said locals of the area rescued Jamal around 7:00pm on Wednesday and rushed him to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead. The three other bodies were recovered by the divers of Rangpur Fire Brigade yesterday.
A witness, Ashraful Islam, said a DB police team led by Sub-Inspector Motiur Rahman raided a spot at Bangibechaghat under Dinajpur Sadar upazila around 6:00pm Wednesday to nab gamblers.
The law enforcers surrounded around 20-25 alleged gamblers on the bank of Punarbhaba river. Being chased, they jumped into the river to escape arrest.
Many of them swam ashore while 4 to 5 persons remained missing, said Ashraf. Later, locals started rescue operation and rescued Jamal around an hour after the incident. Meanwhile, members of Dinajpur Fire Bridge rushed to the spot and called in divers from Rangpur since they had no divers at the station.
The divers arrived around 10:00pm on Wednesday and searched for the missing persons. After an hour they suspended rescue operation. They later resumed the search yesterday and recovered the three bodies.
The search operation was suspended in the evening. Another alleged member of the gambling ring, Mohammad Jahid, 18, has been missing since the incident.
Contacted, Abdulla-hil-Zaman, acting officer-in-charge of DB Dinajpur, denied chasing the gamblers. He, however, admitted that the members of DB went to the spot on Wednesday evening riding five motorcycles.
Md Moinul Islam, SP of Dinajpur, confirmed that 10 policemen including two SIs and two ASIs of Dinajpur DB were closed in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, in the evening, locals of Ramnagar area in the town attacked Shahinoor Rahman, an alleged gambler in the area, beat him up and set his motorbike afire.