"The Rab men fired a couple of rounds in the air and then fired Nazmul in cold blood shoving him to the ground with a foot on his chest," a witness told The Daily Star in the locality this week.

The Rab-3 members said Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, alias Nazu, resident of Malita village under Palash Police Station (PS) in Narsingdi, was killed in an "encounter" at the BSCIC industrial estate at Kararchar under Shibpur PS in the district.

They said Nazmul, armed and accompanied by several friends, gathered near a water tank at the BSCIC area with the aim to commit muggings. The Rab also claimed to have recovered a pistol from Nazmul's possession and arrested two youths--Nurul Islam Dulal and Sohel Miah--from the spot.

Witnesses' account

Witness accounts, however, gave a totally different picture.

The spot where Rab men shot Nazmul was just some 100 yards east of the Dhaka-Ghorasal highway and at the southwest corner of the BSCIC area. The witnesses were sitting at the roadside tea-stalls, some 150 yards from the spot, or walking in front of the mill-gates where they work.

"Nazmul was talking to two motorbikers--Dulal and Sohel--at around 3:00pm when a few Rab men came there in plainclothes," an employee of one of the mills at the BSCIC, who was walking to a tea-stall, said on condition of anonymity.

"Nazmul did not recognise them

as Rab men and engaged into an altercation with them," said a shopkeeper in the locality, adding that Nazmul traded heated words with them and at one point pushed one of the Rab members.

The Rab men then put on their Rab jackets and identified themselves to the youths, the witnesses said. Realising the mistake, Nazmul got down on his knees and begged the Rab men for his life, said another witness who was standing some 100 yards from the spot.

"The Rab members then held the three youths and dragged Nazmul to a nearby crop field," said the mill-employee. "The Rab men first fired into the air and then shot Nazmul pinning him to the ground with a foot on his chest," he added.

Another witness expressed his surprise to this correspondent, saying, "Is this thing called 'crossfire'? They [Rab] shot him as if killing a bird or an animal!"

Rab threat

The Rab members then cordoned off the whole area and did not let anyone go near Nazmul's body, which lay in the field, the witnesses said. "For the next couple of days, the Rab randomly patrolled the area, threatened us not to tell what we had seen, and ordered us to tell that Nazmul died in 'crossfire'," said a shopkeeper.

The FIR

The following day, Subedar Sarwar Jahan of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) filed a case with the Shibpur PS and handed over Dulal and Sohel along with a pistol and their motorbike.

In the FIR (first information report) Sarwar said that, acting on a tip-off, he along with Sub-Inspector (SI) Jahangir Uddin, Corporals Khairul, Anwar Hossain, Ershaduzzaman and Mosharraf, Lance Nayek Harun, Sepoys Nur Mohammad and Jabed Ali went to the spot at around 2:30pm.

The Rab members were informed that some armed youths had gathered at the BSCIC area to commit some criminal activities, he said in the FIR.

As the Rab men reached the spot, the youths, sensing their presence, opened fire indiscriminately from the water tank, prompting the Rab members to counter with bullets, the FIR said.

During the shootout, the Rab men held three youths, one Nazmul- bullet-wounded with a pistol in his hand, it said.

Nazmul was taken to Narsingdi Sadar Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.

The FIR also said the Rab members picked three shopkeepers who saw the seizure of the pistol from Nazmul. The two arrested youths also confessed in front of the Rab witnesses that they gathered there with arms intending to commit crimes.

"We were inside our shop and heard a couple of gunshots," said one of the FIR witnesses. "After the firing, some Rab men came to me and asked me to go with them," he said, adding, "Going to the field, I saw a youth lying dead and the Rab men showed us a pistol saying they had recovered it from him."

Another FIR witness also said the same while the third one went to his village home during the investigation.

Police investigation

The Shibpur police have already given the charge-sheet in one of the three cases--arms case, murder case and one for barring government officials from duty--filed with them.

SI Rafiqul Islam, the Investi-gation officer (IO) of the case, told The Daily Star that he had submitted the charge-sheet in the arms case stating that a pistol was found in the possession of the youths.

He also said that he brought the two arrestees, who are now in Narsingdi jail, on remand and made an investigation in the locality. He, however, refused to reveal his findings but hinted that those are similar to that in the FIR.

When asked about the findings of The Daily Star investigation, Major Anis, in-charge of Rab-3 at the Adamjee camp which conducts operations in the Narsingdi area, said he does not have anything to say beyond what has been said in the FIR.

Nazmul's past records

Both Palash and Shibpur police stations admitted that they did not have any criminal records against Nazmul, who was also the vice-president of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Charsindur union unit.

Nazmul went to Saudi Arabia and came back in 2001. Since then, he was working in a factory near the Ghorasal fertiliser factory and has also been a contractor in the locality.

At his village, this correspondent found Nazmul was regarded as an amicable and friendly person.

Mother's urge

"I want justice," said Nazmul's wailing mother, adding, "You wouldn't find such a charming, gentle and lively youth in the village."

"We have been traumatised for almost a week since we heard the news and received his body the following day," she said.

The family did not even file any case, fearing the Rab may harm them.