4 farmers abducted

Armed criminals abducted four tobacco farmers from a farmhouse in Naikhongchhari upazila of the district early yesterday.

The victims are Abdul Aziz, 16, Abdur Rahim, 25, and Shah Alam, 40, of Ramu upazila in Cox's Bazaar, and Abu Syed, 42, of Naikhongchhari upazila.

Police quoted local people as saying that a gang of 10 to 12 criminals picked up the four at gunpoint from a tobacco farmhouse in remote Ledukal Mukh area under Dochhari union in the upazila around 4:30am.

Officer-in-Charge of Naikhongchhari Police Station Mohammad Sheikh Alamgir said they heard about the incident and were trying to rescue the abducted farmers and arrest the culprits involved in the abduction.

Mohammad Habibullah, chairman of Dochhari Union Parishad, said several gangs from adjacent Cox's Bazar have been engaged in such abductions for long.