Schoolboy Killing: Two suspects killed in 'gunfight'

Two persons, allegedly involved in the abduction and murder of schoolboy Dev Dutt, were killed in a “gunfight” with police in Kushtia's Mirpur upazila early yesterday.

The deceased were identified as Juar Ali, 27, son of Akkas Ali, and Naimul Islam, 24, son of Johurul Islam, of Chitholia village in Mirpur.

Four policemen were said to be injured in the “gunfight”.

According to Officer-in-Charge of Mirpur police Rafiqul Islam, Juar and Naimul were arrested on Monday morning as suspected abductors.

Dev, son of Pabitra Dutt and a class III student of Chitholia Primary School, was abducted on June 9. His abductors demanded Tk 50 lakh over phone for his release the same day.

Pabitra filed an abduction case that day with Mirpur police accusing six unnamed people.

“During primary interrogation, they admitted their involvement in the abduction,” said the OC.

Following their confession, the police recovered Dev's body from a septic tank near their house on Monday.

“They killed the boy the day they had abducted him,” said Sakhawat Hossain, additional superintendent of police in Kushtia.

As per their confession, the police took Juar and Naimul to Chitholia village to arrest the other members of the gang, Sakhawat added.

“When police reached Habatgari field around 3:30am, their cohorts opened fire on us [and tried] to snatch the duo,” he said, adding, the police also retaliated.

“Both were caught in the line of fire and died,” the police official claimed.

The police recovered two pistols, five bullets and five machetes from the spot.

Contacted, Pabitra, an assistant teacher at Boria High School in Kushtia Sadar upazila and joint secretary of the upazila unit of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, said his son's killers are dead, but he would never get back his son.