Several hundred villagers launched the vigilante attack after an armed gang of 20 robbed about 30 people of money in a string of raids since midday in Lambabil close to Bariardhala Road that links Harualchhari with Sitakunda.

Witnesses said the criminals hauled three women out of home under the cover of dark for apparent gangrape in the hills that skirt Rangapania tea garden, incensing the villagers to kill a gang member instantly. Details about the abduction were sketchy.

The villagers, alerted to the swoop of the bandits by the public address system of the local mosque, carried out the attack with sticks and knives at about 8:30pm.

"People of nearby Lambabil, Sujanagar and Rangapania villages raced to the scene," local Union Parishad Chairman Hasan Sarwar Azam Chowdhury told newspersons.

The killing of the operative prompted the gang to fire on the villagers, who caught and bludgeoned another nine robbers to death in an outlying area, 25 kilometres northwest of Fatikchhari upazila headquarters.

Locals linked one Morshed to the gang as its lynchpin, who was aided by his second-in-command Manik in the raids on locals on the way to a local bazaar.

Police recovered the bodies from Lambabil and Rangapania and sent them to hospital for autopsy in the afternoon. They also seized two guns and a pistol.

Police named one of the dead as Nurul Alam, accused of his role in the killing of Jamal and Bhabotosh, who were ruling BNP's youth front Jubo Dal activists.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Chittagong) Abdus Satter and Superintendent of Police (SP) Mahbubur Rahman visited the scene.

Talking to the DIG and SP, locals blamed a reign of terror on Morshed-led gang and said six families fled the village for fear of life.

Fatikchhari Police Station Sub-Inspector Shamsuddin filed two cases.