A fatal stop: How a bus ride turned deadly for customs officer Bullet Bairagi

A late-night bus journey, a brief phone call, and a moment of deep sleep, these were the final fragments of a routine trip that ended in tragedy for customs official Bullet Bairagi.

On 25 April at 1:25am, Bairagi spoke to his wife, Urmi Hira, for the last time. "Go to sleep, I will be late getting home," he told her. There was no further contact with his family.

Exhausted, he fell asleep on the bus. In his slumber, the vehicle quietly passed multiple comparatively safe points along the Dhaka–Chattogram highway, including Paduar Bazar Bishwaroad and Kotbari Bishwaroad–places where he could have safely disembarked. Unaware, he slept through them all.

When he finally awoke and asked to get down in Cumilla, the bus helper dropped him at Jagurjhuli, an unsafe stretch of the highway. Just half a kilometre ahead lay Alekhar Char Bishwaroad, a far safer point. But that opportunity slipped past.

Family members say it was a fatal mix of confusion and poor judgment by those operating the bus that left him stranded in a vulnerable location.

His uncle, Kartik, said Bairagi had no further communication with the family after the call with his wife. "While he was asleep, the bus crossed the Paduar Bazar overpass and moved ahead. That is how he got off at the wrong place," he said.

"There were two cut marks on his hand. He may have been attacked with a sharp weapon during a struggle. What has happened cannot be undone. But we demand the highest punishment for the killers," he added.

Bairagi had joined Cumilla's Bibirbazar land port as an assistant revenue officer only eight months ago. Being new to the area, he was not fully familiar with its routes and safety risks. The place where he was dropped, though connected to the city's Kandirpar area, becomes largely deserted after 9pm, with little transport available, making it increasingly unsafe.

According to a briefing by the Rapid Action Battalion at its Karwan Bazar media centre today (27 April), Bairagi's death was the result of a planned mugging.

Director of RAB's Legal and Media Wing, MZM Intekhad Chowdhury, said a five-member professional gang, posing as passengers, targeted him after he got off the bus. The suspects—Imran Hossain Hridoy, 37, Mohammad Sohag, 30, Ismail Hossain Jony, 25, Mohammad Sujon, 32, and Rahatul Rahman Jewel, 27—are all residents of Kotwali Police Station in Cumilla.

He said the group approached Bairagi as he searched for transport towards Jangalya. Pretending to help, they took him into a CNG-run auto-rickshaw.

"The gang snatched his mobile phone, bag and a small amount of cash before pushing him off the moving CNG," he said. "He died due to severe head injuries."

Colleagues at Bibirbazar remember Bairagi as warm and professional. Originally from Gopalganj, he had rented a house in Rajaganj Panpotti in Cumilla after joining the port. The distance from his residence to his workplace was about five kilometres.

Jamal Ahmed, president of the Bibirbazar Land Port C&F Agents Association, said, "Bairagi's behaviour was exemplary. He was an asset to the country and had much to contribute. His death feels like the sky has fallen on us."

Bairagi's bloodied body was recovered by highway police from beside the Dhaka–Chattogram highway on 25 April morning. He was found lying near the Irish Hotel area in Kotbari, in the Chattogram-bound lane.

A journey meant to end at home instead ended on the roadside marked by a series of small moments that, together, proved fatal.