Two suspected pickets were allegedly hit and ran over by a truck at Monirampur of Jessor in the early hours of Tuesday.

Police said vegetable vendor Mohammad Yusuf and tea vendor Mohammad Liton were killed while they were trying to throw petrol bombs at the truck at Begaritala in the upazila town.

The bodies were taken to Jessore Medical College Hospital morgue.  

Families of the two, however, claimed that the police had picked up the two victims earlier on that night in over their suspected involvement in setting fire to a pick-up van at about 9:30pm on Monday.

Responding to a question on how police identified them as arsonists, Khabiruddin said, ‘The deceased had petrol bombs with them. The driver is telling everyone that they (deceased) were trying to hurl bombs. Many other people have also said this. Traffics plied the roads last night.’

In answering another question how is it was possible to recover unexploded bombs if the truck ran over the twos, he said, ‘Why do you ask so many questions? I found a petrol bomb, that’s all.’

Denying the claim of arresting them earlier, he said, ‘Relatives say their words. We are law enforcers, we only know what is law.’

Khabiruddin said that both the deceased were BNP activists.