A member of Rapid Action Battalion was killed by a bullet from his own gun while he was on duty patrolling Baridhara Diplomatic Zone yesterday morning.
It was not clear whether he committed suicide or it was an accident.
Milon Sarker, 30, received a bullet when he was sitting in a patrol pick-up van of Rab-1 with five other members, and the van was crossing a check post on the north side of the US embassy on Gulshan-Baridhara Link Road at 7:40am, Rab sources said.
Rab-1 Commander Lt Col Rashidul Alam told The Daily Star that the incident seemed suicide to them, but they don’t know the reason behind it.
The Rab members in the van suddenly heard a firing sound and found that Milon sustained a bullet injury, he said. Milon’s colleagues rushed him to United Hospital at Gulshan where doctors declared him dead.
The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy. After the post mortem, morgue sources said, a bullet pierced Milon’s chin and went out through the skull of his head.
Lutfor Rahman, deputy assistant director of Rab-1, filed an unnatural death case with Gulshan Police Station. In the case statement, he mentioned that Milon committed suicide firing from his own rifle.
Gulshan police, however, were investigating the incident.
Sub-Inspector KM Ashrafuddin, investigating officer of the police station, told this correspondent that they were investigating to know whether it was a case of misfiring or suicide.
The Rab-1 commander said Milon had joined Rab from police about three months back.
Meanwhile, Milon’s wife Lipi Khatun said she suspects that her husband was murdered.
“There is no reason behind his (Milon) committing suicide,” she commented.