Terrorists kill RAB officer in Chattogram

A RAB officer was killed and three other personnel seriously injured when conducting a drive to arrest a criminal in Jungle Salimpur area in Chattogram on Monday evening.

RAB-7 Deputy Assistant Director Abdul Motaleb was killed after terrorists attacked his team with firearms and other weapons.

Md Ahsan Habib Palash, deputy inspector general of police at Chattogram Range confirmed this to reporters at 8:00 pm.

According to police, two vehicles of the RAB Patenga battalion entered the terror-infested area in the evening to detain a criminal. At one point, a group of terrorists attacked the convoy. Afterwards, the criminals took Motaleb and his compatriots as hostages.

Later, a team from the Sitakunda Police Station rescued the hostages and sent them to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Chattogram Cantonment, where the doctors declared Motaleb dead. RAB and police presence has been beefed up in the area.

According to local sources, a BNP office was inaugurated in the area before the gunfight between RAB and the terrorists. However, it could not be confirmed whether the Rokon force or the Yasin force was behind the attack.

When asked about this, North District Jubo Dal Joint General Secretary Rokon Uddin Member denied the allegations of involvement in the incident and said, "We are not involved in this incident. We have come to know about it from the administration."

Jungle Salimpur is located two kilometres west of Bayezid Bostami in Chattogram city, opposite Asian Women University, on the northern side of Link Road.

The 3,100-acre Jungle Salimpur area, located in Salimpur union of Sitakunda upazila, is designated as a government land. Although it is in Sitakunda, it is largely inside the city. To the east lies Hathazari upazila and to the south, Bayezid police station.

The area has been almost entirely controlled by groups of terrorists, hill cutters and land grabbers for more than three decades.

Residents require ID cards to enter; outsiders cannot enter. Outsider's entry is virtually impossible. Even police and district administration personnel have been attacked multiple times while trying to enter.

Due to its remote hilly terrain, the area has become a safe haven for terrorists. Since 5 August last year, following changes in national politics, the area has witnessed clashes and killings over control.

Behind this criminal empire; there are two influential parties—the ‘Alinagar Bahumukhi Samiti’ led by identified terrorist Yasin Mia and the ‘Mahanagar Chinnamoool Bastibasi Sangram Parishad’, controlled by Kazi Mashiur and Gazi Sadek. The administration estimates that the membership of the two organizations is around 30,000.

Recently, gunfights erupted between two factions of terrorists over territory, resulting in one death. The next day, two journalists were attacked while preparing a report there.

On 14 September 2023, while returning from clearing illegal settlements in Chhinnamul Boroitola 2, at least 20 officials, including the then Executive Magistrate Md Umar Faruk and Sitakunda police officer-in-charge (OC) Tofail Ahmed, were injured in an attack. Residents of the area also threw crude bombs and bricks at administration officials, and police fired shots to control the situation.