Although the police claimed six youths had been killed in separate encounters in Kazipara and Lalmatia on Tuesday, eyewitnesses and local people termed their killing ‘cold-blooded’ murder and said there was no encounter at all. On both occasions, the police followed the latest practice of law enforcers, including the Rapid Action Battalion, of killing either alleged criminals or innocent citizens, they alleged. | Well, it's not like we belived those "crossfire" stories. |
| I believe! I believe! |
She said the police team then knocked on the door of the house and asked the residents to come out. ‘When I came out of my house, the police asked me whether I knew that a robbery was taking place in my house,’ said Abdus Salam. ‘When I said no, they wrote something on a white paper and asked me to sign it, and I did so.’
| This would most likely be the "dacoits digging a hole through the wall" story of a couple of days ago |
| Don't want any witnesses |
Seeing the two dead, the other youth was repeatedly requesting the police team not to kill him. ‘Sir, both of my parents died, I am an orphan, please don’t kill me,’ he was quoted by an onlooker. He said the police then dragged the youth into the van and shot him dead. ‘The van drove away, taking all the three bodies,’ he said adding that the police fired several shots while leaving the area.
| That would be one of the "shoot-outs" Bangladesh is famous for |
The Mohammadpur police said all the three were dacoits but failed to say whether there were any cases against them. In fact, the police are yet to identify the youths, who are also unknown to the Lalmatia residents.
Kazipara incident
The police usually patrol the area a couple of times each day but locals say a police team, led by sub-inspector Moshiur Rahman, had been stationed at Baishbari Balur Math (sand field) of Kazipara since morning. They randomly stopped pedestrians, searched them and allowed them to go after a brief interrogation. At about 4:30pm, the police team called three youths who were standing five yards away. Locals and eyewitnesses said they heard a loud sound. When the youths tried to flee the people managed to catch two of them and handed them over to police.
‘We don’t know whether they were criminals but we caught them as the police told us that they had hurled bombs,’ said Joynal, a rickshaw-puller of Balur Math area.
| Ah, yesterdays "hurling" story |
‘Everyone present there saw that the police shot the two youths after forcing them to stand in a line,’ said Ashraf Ali, an elderly resident of Kazipara’s Baishbari area. ‘They were killed just like the Pakistani solders had killed many Bengalis during the Liberation War in 1971,’ Ali, who witnessed the incident, told New Age on Wednesday.
People chased and caught the fleeing youth and brought him to the police. ‘One of them policemen told the youth that he would face the same fate if he disclosed the truth about the incident,’ said Omar Farukh, a Khadem of a local mosque, quoting the policeman.
| "Keep yer yap shut or we'll take you to retrive some arms tonight!" |
Assistant commissioner of the Mirpur Zone, Ziaul Haq, claimed that the police team challenged the youths, numbering 10 to 12, while they were preparing to commit a robbery. ‘They hurled bombs and fired on the police, who also retaliated. They were killed in encounters,’ he asserted.
| "That's our story and we're sticking to it!" |
One of the victims was identified as Plaban Hossain, son of Iskander Molla of 372/1/3, West Sheorapara. His brother, Firoz, said Plaban was working in Mirpur Adarsha Technical and had been missing for six days.
There was no case against any of the youths in the police station.