Police have recovered the body of a female ‘drug dealer’ with bullet wounds in Mymensingh amidst a nationwide crackdown on drug trafficking.
Police claim she was killed in the crossfire during a shootout between two gangs of drug dealers.
Approximately 150 people have been killed in anti-drug raids by law enforcers in the past month, but this is the first incident involving the death of a woman.
The deceased has been identified as Rehana Akhtar, 38, who lived in Mymensingh’s Sankipara area.
According to Mymensingh Detective Branch Police OC Ashiqur Rahman, Rehana was accused in seven drug-related case at Mymensingh’s Kotowali Police Station.
Rehana’s body was recovered after reports from locals in the Sadar Upazila’s Gandrapa area, he said.
It was later sent to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy.
“An initial investigation suggests that she may have been killed in a clash between two drug gangs fighting over their share of money,” he said.
Rehana conducted her drug business behind a cinema hall in the town’s Cantonment area, he said. She fled when police conducted an operation in the area on May 31.
Rehana’s brothers Billal, Partha, Rubel and younger sister Shareefa were detained from the area, the police official said.
Near the start of the narcotics crackdown, law enforcers claimed that most of the deaths occurred in shootouts with police, bdnews24 reported.
Later on some reports claimed that bodies were found after internal gunfights between feuding drug traffickers.
Human rights organisations have condemned the deaths, referring to them as ‘extrajudicial killings’.