Desk Report,
The real RAB chased the fake RAB, the crowd beat up both sides along the way
A microbus was speeding along, honking its horn loudly. Another microbus was following it. Locals stopped the first microbus by planting a tree on the highway, as the incident seemed unusual. The people in the car introduced themselves as RAB. However, none of them were wearing RAB uniforms. The locals became suspicious. When the people tried to escape, the locals caught them and started beating them.
The real RAB chased the fake RAB, the crowd beat up both sides along the way
At that time, the second microbus arrived there. There were real RAB members in it. Although some of them were not wearing uniforms, they tried to rescue the people detained by the locals by introducing themselves. However, they were also beaten up due to the anger of the locals. At one stage, police and RAB members from the local police station went to the spot, calmed the people down and rescued both parties. The incident took place on the Dhaka-Khulna highway at Joy Banglar intersection in Char Jashordi union of Nagarkanda upazila of Faridpur; yesterday, Monday, at around 7 pm.
Confirming the truth of the incident, Sub-Inspector (SI) Amirul Islam, the officer-in-charge of Nagarkanda Police Station, told Prothom Alo that the RAB and fake RAB members were rescued from the hands of the public and brought to Nagarkanda Police Station. At around 8:30 pm, members of the Faridpur RAB camp took them to Srinagar Police Station in Munshiganj.
The victims of the beatings who identified themselves as fake RAB members are Swapan Khan (45) of Chhabbishpara village in Jajira upazila of Shariatpur, Mintu Gazi (45) of Madna village in Chandpur Sadar, Md. Saiful Islam (30) of Kunsibari village in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha, Md. Jamil (32) of Andarchar area in Kalkini upazila of Madaripur and Didar (29) of Hidadanga village in Alfadanga upazila of Faridpur. The process of handing them over to the police station is underway, according to a press release from RAB-10. The notice further states that the accused had robbed two gold traders.
Tariqul Islam, Company Commander of RAB-10 Faridpur Camp, said that a team from the RAB-10 headquarters was chasing the robbers. The locals mistook them and attacked both sides. Since some RAB members were wearing white clothes, the excited people immediately mistook them for real RAB members.
Anwar Hossain, Company Commander of RAB-10 Munshiganj Camp, told Prothom Alo at around 1:45 pm on Tuesday, “We were chasing the fake RAB team from Srinagar, Munshiganj.” They managed to get out through the Padma Bridge and Expressway toll booths, but they were eventually caught.’ Regarding being beaten up themselves, he said, ‘When people were beating up those who introduced themselves as fake RAB, we tried to protect them from the beatings of the people, fearing that they would kill them. However, in the first stage, people also thought that we were fake RAB. Because of this, some incidents happened to us, but it is not actionable.’
