Teknaf municipality councillor among two killed in ‘gunfights’ during anti-drug drive

A councillor of Teknaf Municipality in Cox’s Bazar has been killed in what the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB said was a gunfight during an anti-drug drive.

Police have also killed a person wanted in seven cases, including some over drug-trafficking charges, in a similar ‘gunfight’ in Chattogram’s Sitakunda.

Councillor Md Akramul Haque, 46, a former chief of Teknaf Juba League, was on a Department of Narcotics Control list of ‘top drug dealers’, according to the elite force.

It said the gunfight took place when drug traders opened fire on RAB personnel during a raid on Noakhalipara neighbourhood around 1:30am on Sunday.

Akramul’s bullet-hit body was found at the scene after the ‘gunfight’, RAB-7 commander Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com.

The law enforcers recovered 10,000 methamphetamine tablets or yaba, a pistol, a gun, six bullets and five bullet cases from the scene.

Sitakunda Police Station OC Syed Iftekhar Uddin said a police team conducted an operation on Naralia Beribandh area around 1am on a tip-off that drug dealers gathered there.

Police retaliated when the suspects opened fire and one Rayhan Uddin’s body was found at the scene after the ‘gunfight’, the OC said.

Rayhan had seven cases over murder, drug-trafficking and robbery charges against him, according to Iftekhar.

He said they arrested three associates of Rayhan and recovered two firearms, 5,000 yaba, 20 bullets and two sharp weapons at the scene.

Nearly 70 people have been killed in the ongoing anti-drug crackdown in eight days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared a war on drugs.