'Drug dealer' killed in Rab 'shootout'

An alleged drug dealer was killed in a “gunfight” with Rab at Satgiri Jamal village in Sundaganj upazila early yesterday.

The dead was identified as Abdus Salam, 48, alias Thasha Salam, a resident of the village.

Assistant Commander of Gaibandha's Rab-13, Habibur Rahman Habib said that after receiving a tip off, one of their teams was on their way to raid Abdus Salam's house at around 3:00am. When they were close by, criminals sensed their presence and around five to six of them opened fire on the law enforcers.

As Rab officials retaliated, the criminals fled but Abdus Salam, the “ring leader” of the group, was found with bullet wounds. He was taken to Sundarganj Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared him dead, Habibur said.

RAB team recovered one foreign pistol, three rounds of magazines loaded with bullets, 20 bottles of phensidyl and 10 kilograms of marijuana from the spot, he added.

Abdus Sobhan, officer-in-charge of Sundarganj Police Station, said Salam was a listed drug dealer involved with a drug trafficking gang and accused in 28 cases filed with different police stations, including the one in Sundarganj.

Salam was earlier arrested several times by police and Rab. In many cases he received bail, and served jail time in others, OC Sobhan said.

Salam's brother Abdus Samad, however, said his brother was picked up by law enforcers at night and yesterday morning they came to know that he was killed.

With this, at least 209 alleged drug dealers and peddlers have been killed since the nationwide anti-narcotics drive began on May 4. Most of them were incidents of “shootouts” with police or Rab.