The members of the elite force recovered four firearms and 18 bullets and cartridges after the said encounter that took place at Kala Munshirtila of Dakkhin (south) Pomra under Rangunia upazila, according to Rab sources.

A Rab member was also wounded in the gunfight and was admitted to Rangunia Hospital, Rab sources said.

Earlier Thursday at 11:00am, the Rab-7 of Chittagong arrested underworld don Gias Hazarika, also a Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Shibir armed cadre, who had been absconding since long, from his village home in Baniapara of Dakkhin Kuaish in Hathazari upazila of the district.

Hazarika, 40, an accused in around a dozen criminal cases including three filed in connection with Bohaddarhat eight murders, Bayezid Bostami triple murder and Hathazari double murder and three arms cases, a Rab press release yesterday said.

The Rab sources said during the interrogation at the Rab-7 headquarters at Patenga, Gias Hazarika confessed to smuggling firearms and having links with notorious activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Acting on his confession a 10-member Rab team started a search operation for illegal firearms at a Dakkhin Pomra hideout yesterday at about 3:55am.

As the Rab team along with Gias Hazarika reached near Kala Munshirtila, the accomplices of Hazarika ambushed them at around 4:00am.

The Rab also retaliated that resulted in a gunfight trading some fifty rounds of bullets, Rab sources said.

During the encounter Gias Hazarika tried to flee and, falling in the line of fire, received bullets. He was rushed to Rangunia upazila health complex where the duty doctor declared him dead, the Rab claimed.

The Rab sources said they recovered one home-made DBBL gun, one SBBL gun, one cut-rifle, one LG and three bullets of M-16 rifle, eight bullets of 7.62mm pistol and seven cartridges.

The Rab press release said that during the interrogation Hazarika confessed he was a close associate of top Shibir cadres Sajjad Khan, Habib Khan, "Shibir" Nasir, "BDR" Selim and "Taleban" Sohel. He also confessed to supplying illegal firearms to the notorious criminals of Chittagong city, Rangunia, Hathazari as well as Cox's Bazar.

Hazarika himself was an instructor of arms and a master in marshal arts.

Sources said Hazarika was charge-sheeted in the double murder of AL leaders Faruk Mahmud Siddiqui and businessman Soleman Khan that took place at Hathazari on the Eid-ul-Azha night in 2003.

He was also charge-sheeted in the sensational Bohaddarhat carnage that left six Bangladesh Chhatra League men and two others gunned down in broad daylight on July 12, 2000. But he later managed to drop his name from the charge-sheet.

How Hazarika became an arms dealer
Sources said Hazarika spent a brief expatriate's life in the Middle East and returned to country in late 1990. In 1994, he came in touch with notorious Shibir cadres Sajjad Khan and Habib Khan, who are also accused in the Bohaddarhat eight-murder case.

A wealthy person and an amateur singer, Hazarika gradually got involved with the crime world through smuggling and dealing arms.

He started arms-dealing from 1997 under the patronage of another notorious Shibir cadre Khuku Moni, who was killed in an internal feud, sources said.

Two Union Parishad chairmen of Cox's Bazar and Maheshkhali allegedly helped Hazarika in continuing his activities without any trouble for four years but his name came to light after the Bohaddarhat carnage.

The Detective Branch (DB) of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police arrested Hazarika on August 8, 2000 on charge of supplying arms to Shibir cadres involved in the Bohaddarhat incident. Police later recovered two sophisticated AK-47 rifles and one US-made pistol from his village home.