[Bangla Daily Star] An alleged robber was killed in a "shootout" between his cohorts and police yesterday morning at Rupnagar of Pallabi in the capital. "It is the Rab! Bring forth the Shutter Gun and the Rounds of Bullet!"
The dead, Appel Mahmud Suman, 26, was identified by his brother Asaduzzaman Hira at Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue. He was a resident of Rupnagar's Tin Shed Colony. Police, however, named him as Alamgir.
"Aye, he war a man o' many names! Another o' them wuz 'Harve'!"
Officer-in-Charge of Pallabi Police Station Iqbal Hossain told The Daily Star that following an attempt around 12:30midnight to break into a four-storey under-construction building at C block of Eastern Housing 2nd phase, locals chased a gang of five to six robbers. A team of patrol police joined in the chase.
"Halt! [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!] Or we'll shoot!"
The robbers fired on the police while they were scaling the boundary wall of Botanical Garden to flee, the OC said. Sumon came in the line of fire when the police team fired back. He received two bullets in his legs
"Aaaiiieee! My kneecaps!"
while other gang members managed to flee.
"Michelin-soled flip-flops don't fail me now!"
The locals gave him a good beating after the incident, said the OC.
[THUMP! WHACK! THUMPETY THUMP!]
Suman was admitted to Pangu Hospital at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar where he died around 5:00am.
"He's dead, Jim!"
His body was later sent to DMCH morgue for autopsy.
"Dr. Quincy! Pick up the white courtesy phone!"
Security guard of the building Faruk Hossain gave statements that contradict the description of the incident given by the police.
"Nope. Nope. Dat wudn't whut happened..."
He told The Daily Star that he caught Sumon red-handed while he attempted to steal inside the building, and handed him over to the patrol police around 12:30am. "After 20 minutes, I heard sounds of firing," Faruk added.
"You're not saying the Rab done him in?"
"Well... I..."
"The Rab."
"I guess not. I dunno whut happened. I wudn't even there."
Raqibul Islam, a construction labour of the building, said the labours were sleeping on the first floor when suddenly he woke up to see a man trying to take away his mobile phone. While he screamed,
"Aaaiiieee! My phone!"
the security guard came running and caught the man.
"Gotcha!"
"Lemme go! Lemme go!"
Morgue sources said apart from bullet injuries, the body bore several marks of torture.
"Hmmm... What do you make of this, Sam?"
"Looks like a hockey stick mark...?"
"And this?"
"Definitely the puck. But how'd it get in there?"
Sumon's brother Hira said Sumon disappeared on Friday night after he went out with some of his friends.
"Hang on, youse guys! I gotta pick up a cell phone!"