Toll-takers set fire to tea vendor

Extortionists set a tea-stall owner on fire after he refused to pay them toll in the city's Pallabi area yesterday.
The victim, Mohammad Tofazzol Hossain, 25, was admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital with critical injuries.
Hospital sources said they got smell of kerosene from his body and shirt while giving him primary treatment.
However, Tofazzol alleged that the criminals set fire after dousing him with petrol.
Local criminals Rabbani, Ratul and their associates also looted his cash box and took away his mobile phone, he said. Before leaving the stall, they set him on fire.
Besides, he said he had been giving them toll of Tk 3,000 per month. The criminals vandalised his shop and closed it Sunday night as he refused to give them the toll anymore.
The officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station however said that he heard hot water fell on Tofazzol's body when he was involved in a fighting with workers of his neighbouring shop.