At least eight members of an organised gang of robbers were beaten to death by a mob who caught them red handed when they were trying to steal rice sacks from a store at Purundi Bazar of Araihazar in Narayanganj early yesterday.
Four of them were killed before the police reached the spot near the Dhaka-Sylhet highway around 6am. Witnesses said two robbers died in presence of police, the body of another was recovered from a ditch around 7am while another died in a local hospital around 1pm.
Police have identified four of the deceased from the mobile phones found on their bodies. They are truck driver Rony, 35, of Noakhali; Jewel alias Titu, 32; Shawkat, 30; and Rubel, 28, from Mymensingh.
Four other robbers were arrested from the spot. They are Lokman, 28, Sajib, 27, Manik, 25, and Sabbir, 22. Of them, all but Lokman hail from different areas of Mymensingh.
Three of them are currently undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
Law enforcers have also recovered the truck onto which the robbers were loading the sacks stolen from Bhai Bhai Store, owned by one Gafur Bhuiyan.
Two cases were filed over the incident last night – one for robbery and the other for murder against several thousand people.
According to local people, there have been several incidents of robbery and theft in the area in recent times, but law enforcers have not been able to solve any of the cases. One of the robberies took place at Bagbari Bazar around 20 days ago during which robbers snatched around 180 sacks of rice from a store.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman expressed concerns over the death of the eight robbers in mob beating.
According to the statistics compiled by rights group Ain o Salish Kendra, at least 104 people were reportedly killed in mob beating in different areas between January and September this year. Of them, 50 were killed in Dhaka and 17 in Chittagong.
Police said the gang comprised 18-20 members who rented the truck from the capital’s Tejgaon area on Wednesday.
OC (investigation) Arifur Rahman of the Araihazar police said the robbers went to the Purinda Bazar with the truck – numbered Dhaka Metro Ta-18 4311 – around 4am and asked the on-duty security guards about the location of Bhai Bhai Store.
The robbers then tied the security guards – Zaman and Motaleb – with ropes, broke into the shop and began loading the sacks onto the truck.
According to Zaman, at one point he managed to untie himself by cutting the rope with his teeth and informed the muezzin of the nearby mosque about the ongoing robbery.
The muezzin soon announced news in the mosque loudspeaker, hearing which nearly 200 people, mostly those going to the mosque for saying the morning prayers, came at the spot.
Sensing the presence of the mob, the robbers tried to flee; most of them jumped into the nearby ditches.
But the mob got hold of most of them, beat four to death within an hour, witnesses said. Three others were killed within 7am as several more joined the angry mob.
Witnesses said that compared to the size of the mob, the number of policemen was little. Moreover, they were reluctant to prevent the mob from beating the robbers to death.
Police, however, claimed that they had tried their best to stop the mob but failed. The situation started becoming calm after 7am.
Additional Superintendent of Narayanganj Police, Mohibul Islam Khan, said they had sent patrol police to the spot around 5:30am and one platoon (20 members), led by the Araihazar OC, an hour later. More force was deployed later on.
However, video clips taken on mobile phones by some witnesses show that the police constables were standing stand idle as the mob went on beating a young robber for around 20 minutes on an open field around 7am.
Araihazar OC Arifur refuted the allegation, claiming that nobody was killed in front of police. “Police rushed to the spot and recovered several injured robbers.”
About the regular patrol on the highway, he said they would investigate if there was any negligence in duty.
Police are also scrutinising the information provided by the four arrested robbers.
Injured robbers Sajib and Sabbir told reporters that they had gathered at the Tejgaon truck stand on Wednesday night after coming from different areas of Mymensingh. Injured Manik was coordinating the job, they claimed.
Police said they would be able to solve the case after the treatment of the injured was over.
Driver Rony’s wife Nazma Begum said her husband had left home on Wednesday. She learnt about his death from a transport worker at Tejgaon.
