Zahid Siddique Tarek, the alleged killer of Juba League leader Reazul Haque Milki, has been killed in a so-called `crossfire` with RAB.
Rapid Action Battalion’s intelligent wing Director Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan has confirmed bdnews24.com about the incident.
The official said unknown miscreants opened fire at them at around 10pm Wednesday near Khilkhet when they were taking Tarek to Gulshan Police Station from Uttara.
RAB also fired back in self-defence, he added.
He said, during the ‘gunfight’, two people including Tarek were killed on the spot.
He identified the other as Shah Alam and claimed he was one of the assailants who allegedly tried to snatch Tarek from the elite force.
“Two RAB officials were also injured,” he added.
Milki, an Organising Secretary of the Dhaka Metropolitan (south) unit, was shot in the head in the early hours of Tuesday in front of a Gulshan shopping centre.
A closed-circuit camera in the shopping mall captured the incident. RAB identified Tarek, another Organising Secretary of the Awami League’s youth front, as the killer from the video footage and arrested him within hours of the killing.
”When we analysed the video footage, we saw Zahid walking right towards Milki holding a mobile phone on his left ear and shooting him with a firearm on his right hand,” RAB’s Media Cell Director ATM Habibur Rahman told bdnews24.com on Wednesday.
”Tarek’s manner of walking will give the impression that he was just a pedestrian in a hurry,” he added.
The RAB official claimed Tarek took that particular strategy so that “Milki does not understand his plan.”
Rahman said the weapon used in the murder was yet to be recovered and added all those who had been arrested had already been handed to Gulshan Police.
Tarek had been treated at an Uttara clinic after he was also injured in the incident.
The ruling Awami League in its electoral pledge promised zero tolerance towards the crossfire – killings in so-called ‘crossfire’, ‘encounter’ and ‘shootout’ – in common parlance.
Amid criticisms both at home and abroad, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in February 2011 had said extrajudicial killing had become almost part of the system and it could not be changed overnight.
Meanwhile, RAB has asked the home ministry for permission to investigate the murder.
Milki’s brother Major Rashidul Haque Khan filed a case with the Gulshan police on Tuesday night naming 11, including Tarek, for the murder.
Juba League has expelled the Dhaka Metropolitan (South) Joint Secretary Tarek and Dhaka Metropolitan (north) Organising Secretary Sakhawat Hossain Chanchal over the incident.
Supporters of the Milki claimed a faction of the Juba League had been plotting to eliminate him for a long time.
“The conspirators have finally succeeded in killing him after many attempts,” the front’s Motijheel unit leader ‘Sunny’ said.
Source: Bd news24