DGFI officer is dead, RAB man injured in Bandarban border shootout with smugglers: ISPR

The gunfight with drug traffickers erupted during a joint operation at Tumbru border in Naikkhyangchhari

A Bangladesh Air Force officer working at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence or DGFI has died in a gunfight with drug traffickers along the border with Myanmar in Bandarban’s Naikkhyangchhari, the military's media and PR wing says.

An officer of the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB was also injured in the incident on Monday, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate or ISPR said in a statement.

Without revealing the names of the victims, the ISPR said the shootout erupted during a joint operation.

Mohammad Ashikur Rahman, resident medical officer of Cox’s Bazar General Hospital, said a RAB official named Sohel Barua, 30, was brought to the hospital around 9:45pm with critical injuries.

Sohel of RAB-15 in the district had an injury in his head and he may be transferred to Chattogram Medical College Hospital or the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka for advanced treatment if his bleeding does not stop, the doctor said.

Police and RAB officials at the hospital declined to comment.

The incident occurred around 6:30pm, said Dil Mohammad Bhutto, a member of the local Ghumdhum union council, and Ariful Islam, a community leader of the Rohingya camp set up on a land between the borders of the two countries.

Dil Mohammad said he heard several people were injured in the shootout.