4 suspected robbers beaten to death
Villagers beat four people to death and severely injured another one in Narayanganj's Sonargaon upazila on Sunday night on suspicion that they were robbers.
After noticing a group of strangers in Baniabari area around 9:45pm, locals announced on loudspeakers of mosques that there were robbers in the area, police said.
Hundreds of people from at least seven villages then gathered with sticks, sharp weapons and spears and caught the five men and beat them up.
A team from Sonargaon Police Station reached the area around 12:05am and saw that the mob had left.
After searching the area, police found the body of a man and two severely injured others in a ditch. Of the two, one died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital hours later and the other was admitted to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor).
After daybreak, police found the bodies of two other men in another ditch.
The man who died at the DMCH was identified as Zakir Hossain, 40, of Sukhertek area in Sonargaon. Zakir was previously accused of robbery in at least three cases and he was arrested before, said Sheikh Billal Hossain, additional superintendent of police in Narayanganj.
The men whose bodies were found in the morning were Araihazar residents Abdur Rahim, 48, and Nabi Hossain, 35. They were also previously accused in robbery cases, Billal said.
The man admitted to Nitor is Mohammad Ali, 45, of Araihazar upazila. He is also accused of robbery in cases filed earlier.
The body found on the night of the incident has not been identified yet.
The men who were killed and wounded were stabbed and hit with sticks, police said.
Billal said police were investigating the killings.
Locals said when police reached the area at night, one of the injured men admitted that he and six others went to the area to commit a robbery, and several others were supposed to join them.
According to rights body Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), mobs killed 51 people across the country last year, and nine in January and February this year.
Faruq Faisel, executive director of ASK, said killings by mobs took place because people lacked confidence in law enforcers and didn't respect the laws.
"Law enforcement agencies have a responsibility to earn people's trust," he told The Daily Star.
Zakir Hossain, a member of Kanchpur Union Parishad, said people from Baniabari, Baghri, Kajardi, Sukhertek and other nearby areas took part in the mob beating.
Locals said the villagers were particularly angry because there was a robbery at a house in Kajardi on Thursday night. A man was stabbed by the robbers.
No case was filed over the killings as of last night.