The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: Relatives of Rabiul Islam, who died allegedly being tortured by police in custody, have blocked Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways. The local people also joined with them and took position on the highways at 9am. They torched some vehicles and vandalised a police box. Victim businessman Rabiul Islam, 40, was a resident of Bhogra Bypass Peyara Bagan area under Gazipur city. He was a yarn trader by profession.

According to local people and the family, Basan thana police arrested four people on Saturday night on charge of gambling with bitcoins in mobile phones. The next day, three were released, but the police kept Rabiul under their custody. On Tuesday night, a team of police including sub inspectors Nurul Islam and Mahbub of the police station went to Rabiul’s house and forced his wife to sign on a white paper. Later, the family members came to know that Rabiul has died. When the news spread this morning, locals, equipped with sticks, first blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway and then the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.

At one stage, they torched three police motorcycles on the highway and vandalised Basan police box at Bhogra bypass intersection. According to Basan Police Station officer in-charge Malek Khosru Khan, two SIs of the police station arrested Rabiul and brought him to the police station. He was, later, released at night following the appeal of his relatives and locals. Rabiul was seriously injured in a car crash while the locals were taking him from the police station. He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. However, the relatives and residents of the area claimed that Rabiul died in the police custody.