DHAKA, 12 October 2004 — Armed Maoist extremists shot down and then slaughtered two brothers and another man in two attacks in Sadar sub-district of Chuadanga district on Sunday night, according to reports.

The deceased are Rakibul Islam, 28, and his younger brother Shariful Islam, 26, of Nabinnagar village and Abdul Mazid, 40, of Shantunagar.

Police and locals said a group of gunmen of an outlawed party called up the inmates of the house of Sunnat Ali at Nabinnagar and wanted food at midnight. Sunnat’s wife gave them rice.

“At one stage, they saw and dragged out Rakibul onto the courtyard where they shot and slaughtered him,” police said, quoting a spot account of the brutal killing.

As his younger brother, Shariful, went to resist the killers, they also shot him down and murdered him.

Motives behind the murders could not be known immediately.

None claimed responsibility for the double murders.

Police recovered bodies of the two siblings from the house. None was arrested in this connection.

In another incident, a member of a Maoist outfit Janojuddha cadre was shot and slaughtered by his rivals in another underground communist group, Biplobi Communist Party, at Shantunagar village in the sub-district earlier in the night.

Police said the miscreants kidnapped Mazid at gunpoint. They took him to a road near his house at 9 p.m. and first shot and then slaughtered him.

Biplobi (Revolutionary) Communist Party took responsibility for the killing.

With these, 18 murders of this nature have taken place in the district in the last 42 days.

Eight private armies operate in 16 districts of Bangladesh claiming themselves as supporters of China’s Mao Zhedong and India’s Charu Mazumdar but they usually thrive on ransom.

Several attempts to nab the sop-called Maoists by Bangladesh have ended in failure.

Their operation has sent a wave of fear in the area and the pressure has increased on the authorities to nab them and bring an end to their terror.

18 Suspected Indian Militants Arrested

Eighteen intruding Indian nationals — suspected to be militants — were arrested by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel from Satchhari-Tiprahati area in Chunarughat sub-district in north-eastern Habiganj district with arms and ammunition yesterday.

Police sources said two single-barrel guns, six rounds of ammunition and Indian military uniforms were seized from the arrested persons, all hailing from Tripura state of India.

The sources said a BDR team from Satchhari, led by Nayek Subader Habibur Rahman, herded them up in an operation at about 8 a.m.

They were turned over to Chunarughat police station.