A BNP leader was killed in a “shootout” with police in Magura yesterday, while an Islami Chhatra Shibir man died from the bullet wounds he had suffered during a joint force raid in Dinajpur.

Of the dead, Moshiur Rahman, 40, was organising secretary of Chhoighoria ward BNP in Magura. The other one, Motiar Rahman, was president of Shibir's Nashratpur union unit in Dinajpur.

Moshiur's son Kazi Nayon Hossain told The Daily Star last night that locals had seen police chase his father and six other people who were chatting at a tea stall in Chhoigharia Bazar.

“At one point, they [locals] heard gunshots and after some time we learned my father was shot,” he said over mobile phone from Magura Hospital.

Another bullet-hit, Rafiqul Patwari, was picked up by police, locals claimed. Law enforcers, however, refuted the claim.

Police said a patrol team led by Biplob Kumar Nath, officer-in-charge of Shalikha Police Station, came under attack at Chhoighoria village around 6:45pm.

As the law enforcers were crossing the Hazambari intersection by a van, they saw four to five men sitting there.

“When we asked them about their whereabouts, the group opened fire and threw a bomb on the police van, prompting us to return fire,” OC Biplob Kumar Nath said.

He told our Kushtia correspondent that it could not be confirmed if Moshiur was hit by bullets from the firearms of the police or of the attackers.

Moshiur was taken to Magura Sadar hospital where doctors pronounced him dead, said police.

OC Biplob, SI Hafizur Rahman and Constable Razab Ali were injured in the incident, police claimed, adding that they recovered three petrol bombs from the spot.

On Saturday, at least 30 BNP- Jamaat men were injured, three      with bullets, as they clashed with police at Simakhali, a neighbouring village of Chhoighoria. They had  vandalised a police van before the clash.

SHIBIR MAN

Motiar Rahman, the Shibir leader, died at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases yesterday morning. He was brought to the capital early yesterday.

He was shot during a raid by a team of police and BGB personnel at Ranirbandar of Dinajpur on Saturday night.

 Police and locals said that during the raid around 8:30pm police arrested BNP activist Khoda Bakhs, an accused in several arson cases.

As the team was taking him out of the area, Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men exploded several crude bombs and surrounded the team in a bid to snatch the arrestee.

Police fired rubber bullets and then the BGB men fired seven shots. Motiar, Bakhs' elder brother, who led the attack, was hit by three bullets, said Anisur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Chirirbandar Police Station.

Law enforcers took Motiar, son of Abdur Rahman of Dakkhin Nashratpur, to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital. Later, he was moved to the capital, said Dinajpur Superintendent of Police Ruhul   Amin.

Jamaat-Shibir men vandalised 10 vehicles in Ranirbandar area after the incident.

Police took Motiar's body to Dhaka Medical College morgue from NICD around 4:00pm, but none came for his body as of 12:15 am today, said morgue sources.

A case has been filed with Chirirbandar Police Station against 250 BNP-Jamaat men in connection with the incident.