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criminals came out of the vehicle and started firing at the law enforcers to flee away through a nearby water body, he said, adding that the DB men also fired back in self-defence.

As the two caught in the line of fire, they were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared them dead, Mashiur said.

Two of their accomplices -- Shafiqul Islam and Siddique -- were arrested from the spot, the DB official said.

A pistol, two bullets, a machete and sedative ointments were recovered from the spot, the DC said, adding two police personnel sustained injuries during the incident.

Mashiur said the two had bene involved in various crimes for long and served jail terms.

Quoting the arrestees, the DB official said this gang picked up one small trader named Harun as a co-passenger in the auto-rickshaw from Mohakhali on the night of June 17 and mugged him near Kurmitola General Hospital.

As Harun tried to resist them, the muggers put a scarf around his neck, strangulated him to death and dumped his body beside 300-feet road, Mashiur said.

Meanwhile, the two Rohingya “drug peddlers” killed in a “gunfight” with members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Teknaf upazila were identified as Md Alam, 26, and Md Yasin, 24.

Lt Col Mohammad Foysal Hasan Khan, commanding officer of BGB Battalion-2, said they had information that a group of smugglers were entering Bangladesh from Myanmar with a big consignment of drugs.

A BGB team took position in Wabrang Nanirbari area on the bank of Naf River in Hnila union around 3:00am.

After a while, they noticed three men entering the area crossing the Naf River. The BGB team then signaled them to stop, he told our local correspondent.

Seeing the law enforcers, the smugglers tried to flee.

As the BGB men chased them, they opened fire on the law enforcers, forcing them to retaliate, triggering a “gunfight”, claimed the BGB official.

At one point, one of the criminals fled the scene leaving behind his two injured cohorts.

The BGB members found the two bullet-hit bodies of the drug peddlers on the spot. They also recovered 50,000 yaba tablets, one Chinese gun and two bullets.

Two of the BGB men were also hurt during the incident, the official claimed.