Staff Reporter :
Three members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka as their physical condition deteriorated at Chattogram CMH where they were admitted with bullet injuries following a gunfight at Bibir Haat Rail Gate in Muradpur of the port city early Friday.
The injured men are RAB-7 Deputy Director Squadron Leader Safayet Jamil Fahim, Lance Corporal Arif and Lance Corporal Shahid.
Major Mehdi Hassan and the three other injured RAB personnel were rushed to Chattogram CMH on Friday, said RAB-7 chief Lt Col Mifta Uddin Ahmed.
In this backdrop, a RAB team conducted a drive in the area to seize drugs. They stopped a car with suspected passengers, but they opened fire on RAB officials and RAB had to retaliate. One passenger was shot dead and the other fled, the RAB official said.
The dead was identified as 39-year old Ashim Roy Babu who hailed from Chambal village in Bashkhali Upazila, according to locals, he said.
Babu was the activist of Jubo League, the youth wing of the ruling party. He was the lone candidate for the councillor post in Ward No. 31.
He was a ‘drug dealer’ and was named in three cases in Kotwali Police Station, claimed the RAB officer.
The four RAB members injured in the incident received treatment at the Combined Military Hospital in Chattogram Cantonment, the elite force official said. They are Squadron Leader Safayet Jamil Fahim, Major Mehdi Hassan, soldier Arif and Lance Corporal Shahid.
Arms and yaba pills were recovered from the scene.
Meanwhile, Benazir Ahmed, Director General (DG) of the elite force, visited Dhaka CMH to see the conditions of injured men on Friday afternoon, RAB Headquarters text confirmed the information.
