An accused in the Habiganj four-kid murder case was killed in a "gunfight" with the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the district's Chunarughat upazila early yesterday, eight days after law enforcers allegedly picked him up.

The dead, Bachchu Mia, was a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver who had been traceless since being “detained by plainclothes officials” on February 17, according to his family members.

The family has been making this allegation since the day after his “detention”.

Bachchu was one of the accused in the case filed with Bahubal Police Station in connection with the killing of the four schoolboys.

The kids, Monir Miah, 7, Zakaria Shuvo, 8, Mohammad Tajel Mia, 10, and Ismail Miah, 10, had gone missing from Sundrateki village in Bahubal upazila on February 12. Five days later, their bodies were found buried under sand at a place around a kilometre off the village.

Kazi Moniruzzaman, company commander of Rab-9, claimed that they had detained Shaheed, one of the accomplices of Bacchu.  

A team of the elite force conducted a drive in Dawargachh area around 4:30am yesterday to arrest Bacchu as Shaheed informed them that he was preparing to flee to India in the morning.

Sensing the presence of Rab members, Bachchu along with his accomplices “opened fire on them”. The Rab team fired back, triggering the “gunfight”, the official said.

Later, the bullet-hit body of Bachchu was found and sent to Chunarughat Upazila Health Complex for autopsy. The law enforcers recovered a pistol and two rounds of bullets from the spot.

But the family members turned down the Rab version.

"My husband never touched a gun, let alone operate it. How come he engaged in gunfight?" said Bachchu's wife Rina Akther in a tearful voice.

She alleged that two men in plainclothes on the afternoon of February 17 came to their house at Sundrateki village of the district looking for her husband.

"After talking to them outside the house, my husband came back and told me that police asked him to meet them for some reasons. He did not tell me the reasons and went away," she told this correspondent yesterday.

After a while, she called her husband on his mobile phone, but he was not picking it up. At one stage, she found the phone switched off, Rina said.

Contacted repeatedly, police could not provide any information on him, she added.

Bachchu's mother Elai Bibi alleged that it was the Rab that picked up her son and killed him.

"My son was not involved in the killings. Even if he had been involved in the murders, court was there to try him. Why did he have to die without trial?" she said.

The company commander of Rab-9, Kazi Moniruzzaman, however, denied the allegation outright. "I have also heard the allegation, but it was not true," he told this correspondent.

He also said, “The media is being informed from time to time about whatever Rab members or police are doing in this case.”

Contacted, Lt Col Mahbub Hasan, commanding officer of Rab-9, said the allegation is untrue.

"Bachchu was killed in the gunfight. The family might have made such allegations to draw public sympathy and project him as innocent," he told The Daily Star.

Mahbub said the criminals, including Bachchu, have committed such crimes also in the past and they were confident that they would not be arrested.

The Rab never held Bacchu. He had gone into hiding following huge public and media outcry, added the official.

So far, police arrested six suspects, all neighbours of the four children.

One of the arrestees, Rubel Mia, reportedly told a local court that Bachchu was one of the key planners of the murders.

According to Habiganj police, the murder was the result of a longstanding dispute between two factions of local panchayat (village council). Rubel and Arju, who have been arrested in this connection, confessed it in a judicial magistrate's court.

Police also say the children were killed on orders from Abdul Ali, who leads one of the two rival groups that have long been at loggerheads over establishing supremacy in the area.

Khaleque Master, a retired schoolteacher, heads the other group and all the victims belonged to families loyal to him. Bachchu too used to be his supporter. 

After a row with Khaleque, Bacchu joined Abdul Ali's group.