A group of armed criminals posing as cops shot dead a driver and hijacked the car he was driving from the capital's Banasree area early yesterday.

The victim is Faruk Kha, 32, who hailed from Bagerhat. He was on his way to deliver the private car imported by Manten Motors to a customer's house at Banasree.

Police recovered the bullet-hit body of Faruk and a pair of handcuffs attached to his right wrist. His other wrist was free. The handcuff was inscribed with "police".

Quoting witnesses, Mahbubur Rahman Talukder, officer-in-charge of Rampura Police Station, said a group of criminals on a white private car waylaid Faruk's golden colour car near Banasree Central Jame Mosque around 2:50am. Impersonating police, they forced him to get out of his car and handcuffed him.

The criminals shot him twice as he resisted them from taking away the vehicle, the OC said.

On information, a police patrol team rushed there. They recovered the body and sent it to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. Morgue sources said they received the body with the right hand handcuffed.

There is a police outpost next to the mosque. The area is also guarded by security personnel deployed by Banasree Kalyan Samiti, an association of the house owners of Banasree.

■ It was around 3:00am. I kept my vigil in the area. Suddenly I heard two gunshots. I approached the scene and started whistling to alert other guards," said Abdul Majid, a security guard who was around 20 yards away from the crime scene.

"1 saw two men in a white car but could not see anything inside the other car [Faruk's car) as it had tinted glass windows."

Majid said the two cars then made a u-turn and headed towards Rampura Bridge at high speed.

The hijackers also tried to run over Majid who moved out of the way to save himself. When he reached the spot, he found Faruk lying in a pool of blood.

Another security guard of a nearby ATM booth, who saw the incident from several yards away, said he had heard Faruk saying, "Sir, please don't kill me. What is my fault?"

Faruk was supposed to take the car to a building at Banasree upon instruction from Omar Faroque Khan Khokon, manager of Manten Motors.

Khokon said two drivers, Faruk and Khaza, left Mongla Port with two imported private cars for Dhaka around 8:00pm on Sunday.

" I instructed Khaza to take the car to Naya Paltan and Faruk to Banasree."

"Khaza confirmed me over the phone that he delivered the car safely to the customer’s house around 3:20am but when I contacted Faruk around 4:00am, 1 found his phone switched off," added the manager.

Deceased's brother Badsha Kha yesterday filed a case with Rampura Police Station. Police are yet to arrest anyone in this connection or trace the missing vehicle.