70 robbers swoop on Ctg market, loot Tk 50 lakh goods

At least 15 people were injured when a gang of 70 armed robbers looted goods worth about Tk 50 lakh from a busy market in Chittagong and traded fire with police during their getaway, police and witnesses said.

In another incident in Dhaka, robbers looted cash and valuables worth Tk 1.62 lakh from a businessman's residence at East Shewrapara Tuesday night.

In Chittagong, the robbers looted 11 shops, eight of them jewellers', at Rustomhat in Anwara on Tuesday night in one of the most daring robberies in the district.

Called in by locals over phone, police rushed to the scene and hemmed in the gang from two sides.

But the gang exploded some 30 bombs and fired shots to punch a hole in the police cordon and decamped with the loot, including 400 tola of gold.

The law-enforcers, who ran out of bullets at one stage, retreated when the heavily armed robbers through a microphone from a mosque in the bazar asked them to go away or face serious consequence.

Fifteen people, including a policeman, were injured in the firefight.

The robbers, who came by a canvas-covered truck, stormed the market at 9:30pm when most of the businessmen were attending a milad mahfil in an open space near the market.

Police said the gang, one of the biggest operating in Satkania and Banshkhali areas, was to loot the entire market.

The incident is the latest in a wave of about 100 acts of robbery and terrorism in south Chittagong district since April 29.

Five people were killed in the incidents.

In Dhaka's Shewrapara, six robbers with machetes, knives and handmade bombs entered the house of Dewan Jahurul Haq at 8:15pm. They cut off the thumb of his left hand as he tried to resist.

Dewan told The Daily Star yesterday that the robbers took away Tk 50,000 in cash, 15 tola of gold ornaments and clothes. They carried out the plundering for half an hour.

As the family members recognised some of the gang members as local youths, they threatened them of dire consequences if they informed the police about the incident.

Jahurul was first taken to Al-Razi Hospital and then shifted to the Pangu Hospital.

A case was filed with the Kafrul Police Station yesterday, but none was arrested.