10 Ansar men arrested for robbing Tk11 lakh worth Desco equipment

Ten Ansar members have been arrested on Sunday morning from Dhaka’s outskirt Tongi for allegedly robbing a sub-store of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco). Police said the 10 accused were deployed to protect the sub-store of the power company. The goods they stole are worth Tk11 lakh. One of the accused is Shafiqul Islam; identities of rest of the detainees could not be obtained as of writing this report. The sub-store manager Rashedul Haq Shamsi filed a case against the 10 Ansar members in this connection on Saturday night. According to the First Information Report (FIR), 20-25 unidentified men, claiming to be Shafiqul’s associates, entered the sub-store on Friday night under false pretense and took away cables, equipment required for power supply, CCTV cameras, and other security gadgets. 15 Ansar members, divided into three teams, had been working and staying inside the sub-store. Store manager Shamsi wrote in the report that right after entering the premises, the security guards in the store had sensed the true motive of those unidentified men and tried to stop them, but they were overpowered and heavily beaten by the suspected thieves. The Ansar members did not even stop the suspected thieves from assaulting the security guards, the FIR added. Some of the miscreants had met Shafiqul earlier in the day, the FIR further said. Gazipur's District Ansar Adjutant Saidur Rahman on Sunday told reporters that the 10 accused members of the para-military force had been suspended on Saturday for negligence in duty and later were handed over to Tongi police. A final decision regarding them will be taken after they are found guilty of backing the burglars, he warned. Meanwhile, Sub-Inspector Mahbub Alam of Tongi police station said police are trying to recover the stolen items.