Two pirates were shot dead yesterday during an alleged “gunfight” with Rapid Action Battalion personnel at Urir Char under Chittagong’s Sandwip upazila.
The deceased are Javed, 28, second-in-command of the notorious gang “Jasu Bahini,” and Suman, 26, former bodyguard of deceased gang leader Shahdat Hossain Jasu, RAB-11 sources confirmed.
Members of RAB-11 also seized two AK-47 rifles and a large amount of ammunition from the spot, the sources added.
The ring leader, Jasu, faced a similar fate in a separate “gunfight” earlier with the elite force on April 3, sources said.
Major Md Shahed Hasan Rajib, camp commander of RAB-11 Comilla camp, told the Dhaka Tribune that the gang of sea robbers, led by Javed and Suman, engaged in a gunfight with RAB personnel at around 4:30am, adding that both the men were killed during the exchange of bullets.
Acting on a tip-off, a drive against the gang began at Urir Char a day ahead of the local upazila polls on March 31, forcing Jasu Bahini members to hide in a nearby jungle where Jasu was later killed during a “gunfight” on April 3, Major Rajib said.
The latest confrontation occurred at Charkhali area when Javed and Suman, along with eight others, attempted to leave the island at dawn yesterday, he added.
Local sources, however, said Jasu and three of his cohorts were picked up by RAB members on March 31 after the gang illegally stamped ballots for the Awami League rebel candidate, Mizanur Rahman, at all the polling centres of Urir Char. The arrest of Jasu and his men was influenced by the ruling party-backed candidate Mohammed Shahjahan, the locals claimed.
Meanwhile, police sources say ruling party activists, with the help of Jasu Bahini, swooped on the residence of the then BNP lawmaker Mostafa Kamal Pasha in Sandwip last year, shooting and injuring Pasha’s son and nine others.
Several cases were lodged with different police stations in Chittagong, Noakhali and Lakshmipur districts against Jasu and his cohorts, RAB sources said.
Following the drive at Urir Char, known popularly as a den of pirates, RAB-11 Commanding Officer Lt Colonel Tareq Sayeed told the Dhaka Tribune that pirates use modern arms and ammunition similar to the ones the country’s defence forces use.
“The domination of pirate gangs on the coastal island will be reduced by this drive,” he said, adding that similar drives would continue in the future.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
