The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

Six people including five alleged miscreants were killed in the back-to-back incidents of shootout and mob beating here at village Azampur in Mirersarai hours before dawn yesterday.

Several versions of the incidents have been received from the cops, some of the eye-witnesses and the neighbours.

Neighbours called it the outcome of a long standing family feud while eye-witnesses narrated it as a robbery bid and the retreating bandits shooting. Police found clues of planned killing in the incidents.

Two of the six victims have so far been identified by the villagers and the cops till the time of dispatching this report at 6:30 p.m. today. Three of the miscreants have been taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

Victims identified by villagers and cops were Nazrul Islam Shipon (19) son of late Mulkutur Rahman. He was a captive water fish farmer and Rezaul Karim Sabuj (29), son of late Mahbubul Haque. Sabu, had been the President of Osmanpur Union Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal (JJD) and an accused of several criminal cases. Neighbours of the victims described the incident as a sequel to an old hostility between two families mainly over land sharing. They claimed that Nizamuddin and his son Shajahan, maternal grandfather and uncle respectively of Shipon, had long been in conflict with the victim's family.

It was alleged that a group of hired miscreants was engaged for killing Shipon and Jasimuddin. The hired goons in their first sniper attempt gunned down Shipon in front of a shop at Azampur Bazar at about 3:35 a.m. He died on the spot.

The report of the gunshots woke up people of the neighbourhood who came out en-masse with lethal weapons and pursued the attackers.

The miscreants fired several blank shots but could not make good their escape.

The frenzied villagers at a stage caught five of the seven miscreants and beat them mercilessly. Three of the alleged miscreants died on the spot while two others succumbed to their wounds on the way to hospital.

Some of the eye-witnesses claimed that the gunmen shot at Shipon when he attempted to resist them (gunmen) from looting a shop at Azampur Bazar. The nearby mosques raised alarm by loudspeaker and mobilised the villagers who finally caught five of the seven bandits and lynched them subsequently.

Duty officer of Mirsarai police station admitted that they had received several direct and indirect evidences of murder plot. They have taken three of the alleged miscreants into custody. A case has been recorded with Mirsarai police station in this connection.