All-female mugger gang busted in Rajshahi

Prof Raihana Akter Jahan is used to travelling alone as there is not too many passengers available on the route that early in the morning.

She usually gets on an auto-rickshaw in Haragram area of Rajshahi city to get to Rajshahi Government Women's College where she is the head of history department.

But on Tuesday morning, she was a little taken aback.

Five women, aged in their late twenties or early thirties, approached the vehicle and requested her to take them on.      

Prof Raihana agreed reluctantly. Soon enough, she realised that the five women are no ordinary passengers -- they were armed muggers.

After sensing someone was trying to snatch her gold chain, Raihana screamed out for help and asked the driver to stop the vehicle. 

Before the driver pulled over, the gang members pulled out knives in an attempt to overpower her.

Luckily, right in the vicinity, there was a patrol team of police who rushed to her rescue and caught the five muggers red-handed.  

Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Rajpara Police Station, where Prof Raihana later filed a case, said the five women have travelled over 300 kilometres from Nasirnagar of Brahmanbaria that same morning.

He also said all the women are accused in mugging and burglary cases filed with Nasirnagar Police Station and they were caught during their first mugging attempt in Rajshahi.

“We suspect these women might have been involved in muggings in other districts as their identities as muggers have been revealed in their home district,” the OC added.

Police will place them before a metropolitan magistrate's court today with five days' remand prayer for each.