ASI allegedly shot three people dead

An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police has allegedly gunned down three people including a woman and a child in broad daylight in Kushtia.

The gruesome killing took place at the Customs intersection of the district town’s PIT Road around 11:00am on Sunday. The deceased are Asma Khatun (30) Robin (6) and Shakil (35).

They are all the residents of Naturia village of Kumarkhali. However, they used to live in Kushtia. Slain Shakil worked as a bKash agent, a mobile financial service.

Police have detained ASI Soumen Roy suspecting him as killer. Now, he is being interrogated in police custody.

According to police and witnesses, a woman along with a six-year-old boy was standing in front of a three-storied building at the Customs intersection of the Kushtia-Jhenaidah highway around 11:00am. A man was standing nearby.

All of sudden, a man shot the woman in her head and then the man standing next to her in his head too. Frightened by firing, the young boy tried to run away, but the shooter caught him and shot him in the head too.

As witnesses came to the rescue, the shooter fled to the three-storied building. Later, people gathered in front of the building and started hurling stones at the building.

On receiving news of the incident, police rushed to the spot and took the injured to Kushtia General Hospital. The woman succumbed to her injuries at the hospital emergency department while the man and the child died in the operation theatre.

Kushtia’s additional superintendent of police Mostafizur Rahman said three people were shot dead. A suspect has been detained and he is being interrogated, the police official added.

Requested to be unnamed, a top official of Kushtia police told Prothom Alo that ASI Soumen Roy worked at Phultala police station in the district. Police believe Soumen committed such horrific homicide using the pistol he was given from the police station. The pistol has been seized.