Condemned convict militant Rakib Hasan Russel, recaptured hours after he was snatched with two others from a prison van in Mymensingh, was killed in a ‘gunfight’ with police at Beltail in Mirzapur upazila here early Monday.
Acting Police Super of Tangail Hasibul Alam claimed that Rakib, also known as Hafez Mahmud, 35, a top leader of banned Islamist militant outfit Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), died around 4:30am in the ‘shootout’ with policemen.In an attack on the prison van, a group of militants snatched three convicted JMB members — Rakib, Salahuddin and Boma Mizan — in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh, killing a police constable while they were being taken from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur to Mymensingh court around 10am on Sunday.
Members of the elite force Rab recaptured Rakib around five hours later from Taktarchala in Sakhipur of Tangail district while the two others are still at large.
About the killing of Rakib, Mirzapur Police Station officer-in-charge Golam Mostafa told reporters that a joint team of police from Mymensingh and Tangail was taking Rakib to a spot of Mirzapur upazila in search of the two other escaped convicts around 4:00am.
As they got close to Beltali Ceramic area, a group of JMB men fired gunshots at the law enforcers who also returned the fire in self-defence, triggering a gunfight.
After the gun battle, police found Rakib with serious bullet wounds and sent him to Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. Two police constables were also injured in the incident.
The law enforcers also recovered a shutter gun from the spot.
Meanwhile, the body of Rakib was handed over to his father, Abdus Salam, in the afternoon after autopsy at Tangail General Hospital.
Salam said he came to Tangail from Jamalpur after watching news on television channels.
Police filed four cases — two with Trishal and two others with Sakhipur police stations — in connection with snatching of the three JMB militants and the killing of the policeman in the prison van.- UNB
