Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker has rewarded three police stations with Tk1,00,000 for their success in busting a notorious robbers’ gang in the country.
The reward money will be distributed among Pahartoli and Kotwali Police Stations in Chittagong; and Khilgaon Police Station in Dhaka for arresting top leaders and cohorts of the gang, Babul-Hasan-Kalam Bahini.
Sources at the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) said they have already received the money from the police headquarters in Dhaka, and it will be handed over to the representatives of the respective police stations today.
On December 13, members of the gang looted about 10 tolas gold ornaments worth Tk4.40 lakh from jewelry shops—Gini Jewelers and Aprupa Jewelers—on Hossain Shahid Suhorawardy Road in Chittagong.
On that night, the gang members fled the spot after blasting bombs that killed a hawker named Syed and injured 12 others.
Later, Pahartoli police arrested the gang’s top leader Imtiaz Uddin Babul with arms and ammunition in Chittagong.
Meanwhile, Kotwali police nabbed the gang’s two members—Kalam and Monir who ware also injured in the blast—from a medical and seized the microbus used during the robbery.
On December 15, Dhaka’s Khilgaon police nabbed the gang’s leaders Hasan Jamadar and Manik with the looted jewelry from Khilgaon area.
Later, Chittagong’s Kotwali police arrested seven more cohorts of the gang including four women with four arms and ammunition.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that the IGP awarded the police stations to inspire the members of the police.
CMP Assistant Commissioner (Double Mooring circle) said this type of reward would inspire them while they work to maintain law and order situation and to keep public lives and properties secured.
Source at the CMP said some 80 members of the gang have been active across the country in the past few years.
Of them, 12 members, including the three ring leaders, of the CMP blacklisted gang were arrested in the police drives, they said.
In last five years, the gang carried out about 400 robberies across the country, the sources said.
Of the incidents of robberies, about 100 had taken place in Chittagong and some 12 people were killed in the incidents.
