Hazaribagh boy killing accused dies in \\\'shootout\\\'

Former Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Arju, the prime accused of torturing a teenage boy to death on Monday, died in ‘crossfire’ in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh on Tuesday. Raja, 15, was allegedly tortured to death by Arju and his cohorts in Ganaktuli area under Hazaribagh Police Station on Monday over a flimsy matter. Sources at the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) headquarters said a team of RAB-2 arrested Arju from Hazaribagh area on Monday midnight. When the Rab team was going to conduct operation along with Arju to arrest his associates in the early hours of Tuesday, miscreants tried to snatch the ex-BCL leader from the crime busting force’s custody near Mannan Principal’s house at Boraikhal in Hazaribagh around 3:30am, said Director (Legal and media wing) of RAB headquarters Mufti Mahmood Khan. He said as the miscreants fired gunshots, the elite force also retaliated by shooting fire and during exchange of fire Arju sustained bullet injuries. At one stage, Arju’s associates fled the scene and the RAB team recovered two foreign made pistols and three bullets from there, the media wing director of the RAB headquarters, informed. Arju was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries at about 5:30am, he added. Raja was the son of Babul Hossain, a resident of 46, Ganaktuli. The boy was reportedly picked up by Arju and his cohorts from his (Raja’s) residence. Arju and his men then took the captive to his (Arju’s) residence on Monday morning alleging that the teenage boy stole a mobile phone set. Family members of Raja and locals alleged that Arju along with his gang beat Raja mercilessly at his house, leaving the boy critically injured. They dropped the boy into his house after providing him with first aid at a local clinic, Ratna, paternal aunt of the victim, told medical reporters at DMCH on Monday afternoon. Raja’s family members took him to the DMCH where doctors pronounced him dead around 5pm. There were marks of torture all over Raja’s body, hospital doctors said. Main accused of the murder, Arju, was picked up by RAB-2 at midnight and died in the ‘shootout’, according to a news agency.
- mbz