At least five incidents of mugging were reported in the capital’s Mohakhali, Paltan, Pallabi and Jurain areas last night that left five people injured while muggers snatched over Tk30 lakh and other valuables.
Residents of Purana Paltan caught a mugger when he was fleeing after snatching Tk 20 lakh from employees of a travel agency.
The injured people were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Four of them were stabbed and a woman sustained injuries after crude bombs had been hurled at her.
Many said several gangs of muggers had become active taking the advantage of the relaxed law and order situation.
Md Zahir Talukder, 28, a representative of Drugs International, was stabbed indiscriminately by muggers in front of the Ayesha Memorial at Mohakhali. The criminals took his mobile phone and Tk10,000 on his way to Green Road residence around 10pm.
Also in Mohakhali, muggers stabbed buying house employee Mithu Chandra Majumder, 26, and snatched his mobile phone and Tk4,000 at Hajirbari around the same time.
Bhuiya Mahbub Hasan, OC of Banani police station, said they had not yet been informed of the incident as of 12:30am and that forces had been sent to the DMCH to inquire.
In Pallabi, Mohammad Hafizur Rahman, 30, and Nazrul Islam, 36, were stabbed by a gang of criminals at Block B of Section 12 around 10:30pm. The muggers took away their cell phones and cash.
In Jurain, a female factory worker named Alo Akhter, 26, sustained severe injuries in the abdomen, chest, hands and face when criminals hurled bombs at her on her way home around 9:30pm.
A gang of six to seven armed criminals on three motorcycles fired shots and looted Tk20 lakh from the employees of a travel agency around 7pm in front of the Kosturi Hotel at Paltan.
Locals caught one of them although the others fled with the money.
Khorshed Alam, OC of Paltan police station, said they were conducting drives with the detained mugger at different places to catch the others. He said: “We are about to identify the other muggers.”