During a robbery in Sreepur, Gazipur, where criminals had felled a tree to block the road, a CNG driver was fatally injured with a machete and one of the robbers was killed after being beaten by local villagers in the early hours of Friday.
The incident, confirmed by Mohammad Abdul Barik, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sreepur police station, occurred at around 1am in the Gojari forest area of Satkhamair along the MC Bazar-Bormi road.
Locals caught four robbers and turned them over to the police, the officer said.
The deceased CNG driver was Abul Kalam, 40, son of the late Gias Uddin of Tepirbari village in Telihati Union of the upazila.
The full identity details of the deceased robber, Arif Hossain, 30, could not be confirmed.
Their bodies have been sent to Gazipur Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital for postmortem examination.
Shafiqul Islam, a passenger in the CNG, filed a written complaint with the police after the incident.
Upon receiving the news, a team from the Gazipur Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) visited the crime scene in the morning and spoke with the relatives of the deceased CNG driver at Sreepur Upazila Health Complex.
The detained robbers are Shakil, 25, Ripon Mia, 19, Tahsin Mia, 18, and Abul Kalam, 27.
At the time, seven other accomplices fled the scene on foot.
CNG passenger Shafiqul said that he and three companions had hired a CNG from MC Bazar to Bormi to bring wooden husks for the S-mill.
Around 1am, while passing through the Gojari forest area of Satkhamair on the MC Bazar-Bormi road, they saw a tree fallen on the road and stopped their CNG, Shafiqul said.
He said that, at that moment, nearby robbers held them at gunpoint and robbed them of all their cash and mobile phones.
The robbers also stopped other vehicles on the road and similarly held the passengers hostage to loot their belongings.
When the victims resisted, CNG driver Abul was seriously injured by multiple machete blows from the robber.
The victims’ cries drew local villagers, who arrived at the scene and dealt robber Arif a severe beating.
Upon receiving the news, police arrived at the scene, and the locals handed over Arif and his four accomplices to the police.
Abul was referred to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital due to his severe injuries, but he died on the way in the Masterbari area of Sreepur municipality.
The OC of Sreepur police station said that the critically injured CNG driver and the wounded robber were taken into police custody and brought to Sreepur Upazila Health Complex, where the doctor declared the injured robber dead.
A case is currently under investigation, he added.