Staff Reporter :
Locals, including ruling party men and family members, alleged that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) killed Teknaf Municipality’s Ward Councillor Ekramul Haque in the name of gunfight based on wrong information during the ongoing anti-drug crackdown on Sunday.
They also termed the deceased’s father’s name and residence address at Noakhaliparha were incorrect as provided by RAB to the media.
RAB-7 Cox’s Bazar Company Commander Major Md Ruhul Amin claimed that Ekramul Haque was No.1 local drug lord in the list of Home Ministry prepared this year.
Major Ruhul also said that his name appeared on a list of Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) and also accused in drug case and a murder case. He confessed the mistake of deceased’s father name and his address as Nazir Parha instead of his home at Kaiyukkhali.
In a query, Teknaf Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ranjit Kumar Barua, told The New Nation on Tuesday, “Police did not find any drug case against Ekramul with the police station except a murder case filed against him on 2008.
“The case over clash has been settled in court. And the final report on the drugs case has also been submitted to the court. It said no involvement of Ekramul in drug business was found,” the OC said.
Citing the anomalies in the RAB media release, Ekramul’s wife Ayesha Khatun said that her father-in-law Abdus Sattar had no aliases and there was no area by the name of Nazir Parha in Teknaf Municipality.
She claimed that the sons of one Mojahar Mia at Nazir Parha under Teknaf Sadar Union Parishad were accused of trading yaba.
Ayesha Khatun was astonished after being informed that RAB termed her husband as a ‘top yaba godfather’ and Ekramul had more than one cases against him at Teknaf Police Station under narcotics control law.
She insisted that her husband had never been involved in Yaba trade and there is no one case filed against him in this regard with any police station in the district.
Ayesha suspected RAB killed her husband on wrong information.
Ekramul’s brother Ehsanul Haque Bahadur told the media, “Ekramul, a former president of Teknaf Juba League, and 46-year old ruling party politician was elected Ward Councillor three times in a row. He had served as president of Teknaf Bus Station Traders’ Association and convenor of Teknaf HiAce Microbus Workers’ Union. RAB media release on his death is misleading.”
He also supported with Ayesha Khatun’s claim that RAB wrote his father’s name as Mojahar Mia alias Abdus Sattar dramatically which is not true.
However, some people in plain-clothes posing as members of an intelligence agency took Ekramul away at around 9:30pm on Saturday, saying they wanted to speak to him over some land issues. Ehsanul said they later came to know about the death of Ekramul in the ‘gunfight’.
Teknaf Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ranjit Kumar Barua said Ekramul had two cases against him – one over a clash and the other over narcotics.
“The case over clash has been settled in court. And the final report on the drugs case has also been submitted to the court. It said no involvement of Ekramul in drug business was found,” the OC said.
Earlier on Sunday, RAB claimed gunfight took place when drug traders opened fire on RAB personnel during a raid on Noakhalipara neighbourhood around 1:30am on Sunday. Ekramul’s bullet-hit body was found at the scene after the ‘gunfight’, said RAB-7 Commander Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed.
The law enforcers also claimed to have seized 10,000 methamphetamine tablets or yaba, a pistol, a gun, six bullets and five bullet cases from the scene.
Mahabubur Rahman, the acting mayor of Cox’s Bazar Municipality and Organising Secretary of the Awami League’s Cox’s Bazar district unit, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Facebook where he demanded investigation into the death of Ekramul.
Teknaf Upazila Awami League General Secretary Md Nurul Bashar said that Ekramul could not even complete construction of his home in two decades due to a lack of funds.
“He struggled to pay his children’s tuition fees every month. It’s ridiculous to tag him as a Yaba trader,” Bashar said.
He also alleged the law enforcers were framing many people in the ongoing war on drugs and said whether there was a plot by the ‘real drug traders’ behind Ekramul’s death needs to be looked into.
Teknaf Awami League President and former MP Mohammad Ali said, “There must have been some mistake. The law enforcers must clear the issue.”
