Police officer shot by ‘drug trader’ in city

A police official was wounded after being shot by an alleged drug trader while carrying out a drive in the capital's Mohammadpur area yesterday morning, police said.

The alleged drug trader was also wounded in a "gunfight" that broke out after he opened fire on the official.

Ujjal Hossain Khan, assistant sub-inspector of Rayerbazar Police Outpost, was being treated for bullet wounds in his right leg at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.

Walid Hossain, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the incident took place around 9:30am when a police team carried out a drive at a house on Baishakhi road near the police outpost to arrest a drug trader.

Acting on a tip-off, the police team went there to arrest an accused named Rakib. The team saw four to five people in a room and when ASI Ujjal grabbed one of them -- named Ibrahim Chowdhury -- thinking he was the accused, he bit the police officer's cheek, pulled out a revolver and opened fire on the ASI.

Police fired back and arrested Ibrahim. They also recovered a firearm and 200 yaba pills from his possession.

The injured were taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital. From there, Ibrahim was later shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.