Brave cop foils bus robbery

Jebu Ara, one of the victims of Thursday night's highway bus robbery, flies into a rage at the sight of the detained robbers at Shahbagh Police Station yesterday morning. Photo: SK Enamul Haq

An officer of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested five robbers and saved six victims chasing down a bus for four kilometres in the early hours yesterday.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Syed Nurul Islam of Ramna zone heard the passengers of a Gabtoli-bound bus screaming for help near Shahbagh around 2:00am. He immediately ordered his driver and bodyguard to follow the bus and made the arrest near Asad Gate.
All the six victims are members of a family from Shibganj in Bogra. They boarded the bus of Jahan Paribahan from Janapath in Sayedabad.
The victims, including children and women, were wounded as the robbers stabbed and beat them up for putting up a resist. They were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The arrestees aged between 22 to 30 years are Selim, Babu, Zafar, Robin and Aminul. They were turned in to Shahbagh police, who recovered two sharp weapons and several iron rods from their possession and seized the bus.
Victim Mukhlesur Rahman told The Daily Star, "When the bus reached Kakrail, the driver turned off the lights and asked us not to move. They pointed sharp weapons and snatched Tk 16,000 from us."
They also threw one of us from the bus near Matsya Bhaban, he said, adding, "We boarded the bus to go to Karwan Bazar so that we could board a truck to go to our village home."
Talking to The Daily Star, ADC Syed Nurul Islam said, "I got suspicious when I saw the lights of the bus were off and the passengers crying."
"The arrestees are members of a professional gang of bus robbers," he said.