Three suspected robbers have been killed in an alleged gunfight with the police after they, along with other gang members, killed a nightguard who tried to stop them from looting a shop in Feni.
The gang strangulated Abdul Mannan, 45, to death with a towel in Beker Bazar in Daganbhuiyan upazila of Feni on Thursday, police said quoting locals.
The three robbers have been identified as Dulal Matobbar, 42, Babul Molla, 40, of Barguna district and Md Bidyut, 42, of Naogaon district.
Police arrested another member of the robbery gang and recovered guns, bullets and other local weapons from the robbers after the gunfight, confirmed OC Aslam Sikdar of Daganbhuiyan police station.
“The robbers were loading a truck with goods, looted from a local shop named ‘Shariat and Brothers’, in Beker Bazar in the early hours of Thursday,” said the OC.
“When the nightguard Mannan chased after them and screamed for help, the robbers eventually overpowered him and strangled him to death,” added the OC.
Afterwards, sensing the skirmish, locals sought help from other residents of the area by using a mosque loudspeaker and informed the police, local sources said.
According to the police statement, policemen dispatched to the area arrived at the scene and detained two robbers, while other gang members opened fire at them initiating a gunfight.
In retaliation, police then shot and injured three robbers. They were taken to the Daganbhuiyan Upazila Health Complex where the doctor on duty pronounced two of them dead.
The third gang member was sent to Feni General Hospital for better treatment where he died in the morning.
The bodies of the nightguard and robbers were sent to the morgue in Feni General Hospital.
Police lodged separate cases for murder and robbery after the incident and seized a pipe gun, two sharp knives and a truck loaded with looted items from the place.
