Gunfight: Judicial inquiry over Arzu’s death

A Dhaka court today ordered judicial inquiry into the death of Hazaribagh unit Bangladesh Chhatra League leader who Rab said was killed in gunfight.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shahrier Mahmud Adnan passed the order after scrunitising the documents filed before it by the complainant.

The court also ordered to send the case to the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sheikh Hafizur Rahman for further course of action.

Dhaka’s Hazaribagh unit chief of ruling Awami League’s youth front Chhatra League, Arzu Miah, was killed on Tuesday last week in what Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) described as a gunfight.

He was the prime accused in a case filed over beating dead a 16-year-old boy Raja. The boy, blamed for stealing of laptops and mobile phones, was allegedly killed by Arzu and his party cohorts on August 17.

Arzu’s brother Masud Rana, who filed a case suing three Rab officials over his younger sibling’s death, said Arzu was detained by the elite force on the night Raja died.

Yesterday, about a week into the alleged gunfight, Rab-2 commanding officer Masud Rana was withdrawn and attached to the force’s headquarters.

Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's legal and media wing director, said the move was meant to ensure a fair probe into the allegation raised against Rab-2 commanding officer Masud Rana.

Between August 18 and August 21, four leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League and its associated bodies were killed in “shootouts” involving police and Rab.

Rights body Ain o Salish Kendra says 72 people have died at the hands of law enforcers in the name of “shootouts” in the first six months of this year.

At least 25 people were killed in such “gunfights” or “shootouts” between July 1 and August 23, according to reports published in this newspaper.