A fresh incident of armed robbery has been reported on the Dhaka-Tangail-Jamuna Bridge highway, a group of robbers hijacked a passenger bus, looted all belongings of the passengers and allegedly molested 8–10 female passengers during the course of the robbery.
It occurred between 11:30pm on Tuesday and 5am on Wednesday.
According to the bus driver, supervisor and passengers, the incident occurred after a passenger bus of Al Imran Paribahan departed from Abdullahpur, Dhaka, around 8pm on Tuesday, en route to Rangpur.
The bus assistant, Atikur Rahman, said that several passengers boarded at Narsinghpur, Baipail and Ashulia in Savar.
By approximately 11:30pm, the bus, carrying around 45 passengers including 10 women, crossed Elenga in Kalihati upazila of Tangail.
Shortly after entering the connecting road on the eastern end of the Jamuna Bridge, 8–10 individuals posing as passengers, armed with knives, machetes and other local weapons, took control of the bus by threatening the driver.
They then blindfolded and tied up the driver, staff and all passengers.
Upon reaching the roundabout near the eastern end of the Jamuna Bridge, the robbers turned the bus around and began driving back towards Dhaka.
En route, they systematically searched every passenger, looting mobile phones, cash, gold jewelry and other valuables.
The robbers took the bus as far as Chandra-Ashulia in Savar and throughout the night, made several trips between that area and Tangail.
Bus driver Abed Ali reported that the robbers made four to five round trips between Tangail and the Chandra-Ashulia area over the course of the night.
Eventually, at around 5:30am, they abandoned the bus near Shibpur on the Tangail city bypass road and fled.
Following the incident, the bus passengers went to Tangail Sadar Police Station to report the crime.
On Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Police Mizanur Rahman and other senior police officials visited the scene and spoke with the bus staff and passengers.
Jewel Mia, a passenger from Adamdighi in Bogura, said that female passengers were subjected to molestation under the pretext of searches for valuables.
Though blindfolded, he could hear their cries and pleas.
Another passenger, Akash Mia from Kaunia, Rangpur, said the robbers bound the hands, feet, eyes and mouths of all passengers and searched them repeatedly, taking everything they had.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Tangail Sadar Police Station, Tanvir Ahmed, said that the process of filing a case is underway and efforts are being made to identify the perpetrators.
Notably, on February 17, a similar robbery and molestation incident occurred on the same highway involving a bus of Unique Royals.
Previously, on August 2, 2022, a bus heading to Kushtia was similarly attacked, during which a female passenger was raped.
