Two ‘drug pedlars’ die in Cox’s Bazar ‘shootout’

Two suspected drug pedlars were killed in a reported shootout with members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Domdomia under Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf upazila during the early hours of Monday.

The dead were identified as Sabbir Hossain, 25, son of Md Ibrahim Sheikh, hailing from Chitalmari upazila in Bagerhat district and Hafizur Rahman, 35, son of Md Abdul Matin of Savar upazila in Dhaka.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Shah Alam, acting company commander of RAB Teknaf office, a covered van was crossing over a RAB check post in the area at around 2:30am, RAB signalled it to stop.

Denying signal, the criminals from inside the vehicle opened fire on the RAB team, prompting them to fire back, triggering the shootout.

The two alleged drug pedlars were shot when they were trying to flee the scene and died on the spot, while two others managed to flee, UNB reports quoting the RAB official.

The elite force team also recovered 40,000 pieces of yaba tablets, a foreign revolver, one shooter gun and 11 round bullets from the vehicle.