4 killed in 'shootouts'

Two suspected muggers, who were wanted for the murder of ASP Mizanur Rahman Talukder, were killed in a “gunfight” with detectives in the capital's Rupnagar Beribandh area early yesterday, police said.

The dead are Jakir and Mintu, said Abdul Baten, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch (DB). 

In another incident, two alleged robbers were killed in two “shootouts” with police in Kushtia early yesterday.

The "gunfight" in the capital took place when a DB team responded to the muggers' firing, said Masudur Rahman, DMP deputy commissioner (media). 

The team went there gleaning information from Shah Alam alias Alam, who was arrested earlier in connection with murdering Mizanur, that his cohorts used to mug people in Beribandh and nearby areas, using a white car, Masudur said.  

When the team signalled a white car to stop around 4:30am, four people came out of the vehicle and started firing at police, forcing them to retaliate.

After the "gun battle", Jakir and Mintu were found lying on the spot with bullet wounds, while others fled. The injured were declared dead after they were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said police.

The law enforcers also claimed to have seized the car, recovered two firearms and several bullets from the scene. 

On June 21 this year, four muggers picked up Mizanur, who was in plainclothes, in a car, mistaking him for a passenger near his Uttara residence. Mizanur, an ASP of Savar highway circle, was going to his workplace.

The muggers then strangled Mizanur, knowing that he was a top police official, police said.

While disclosing the arrest of Shah Alam on Sunday, police named three others Faruk, Mintu alias Kamal and Jakir, saying that the trio were involved in the murder.

In Kushtia, an alleged robber, Sobhan Ali, 35, was killed in a "gunfight" with police in Sadar upazila and another alleged robber, Hasanuzzaman Lalon, 40, killed in a similar incident in Bheramara upazila, reports our correspondent there. 

Zoynul Abedin Raju, additional superintendent of Kushtia police, said a team of DB police went to Baradi area in Sadar upazila around 4:30am, acting on a tip-off that some robbers put a barricade on Kushtia-Pabna highway to commit a robbery.

Sensing police presence, the criminals opened fire, prompting the law enforcers to retaliate. Police found Sobhan's body lying on the highway after the "gunfight", said the police officer.

Police said Sobhan stood accused in at least eight robbery cases filed with Kumarkhali and Kushtia police stations.

They also claimed to have recovered a pistol, a rifle, two bullets and a saw from the spot.

About another “gunfight”, Nur Hossain Khondokar, officer-in-charge of Bheramara Model Police Station, said the robbers started firing when a patrol team of police went to Dashmile area in Bheramara upazila.

After the incident, police found the body of Hasanuzzaman, who was accused in a dozen robbery cases with different police stations, the OC added.