Criminals shoot dead 2 workers

Family members mourn the death of two construction workers, Milon, top right, and Faruque, bottom right, killed in shooting by extortionists in the capital's Badda yesterday. Photo: Focus Bangla

Criminals shot dead two construction workers and injured another at the site of an under-construction building in the capital's Badda area yesterday morning.
Police suspect that local miscreants, who tried to extort money from the land owner, were behind the shooting.
The deceased were identified as Faruque Hawlader, 30, a mason, and Milon Hawlader, 22, a day labourer. They had suffered bullet wounds in their chests.
Injured Mahmud Ghorami, 35, a brother-in-law of Milon, was fighting for his life at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet wound in his chest.
Three armed criminals came to the site at Maynarbagh around 8:30 am when five workers were digging the soil to build an underground water-tank, police and locals said.
The miscreants asked the labourers to stop the work. But as the workers continued with their jobs, the criminals had suddenly opened fire on them and fled away blasting homemade bombs.
The shooting left three of the labourers severely injured, they added.
Faruk Hawlader, owner of the building, told The Daily Star "An unknown person, introducing himself as Nirob, phoned me around 11:00pm Wednesday last and demanded extortions for constructing the building."
"I do not know whether the incident had taken place due to my refusal to pay them extortion," he added.
Iqbal Hossain, officer-in-charge of Badda Police Station, said local criminals might have killed them for extortion.
"We detained two persons for interrogation. We are hopeful of identifying the killers after gleaning information from them," he added.
Visiting the mason's house in the afternoon, this correspondent found that Shathi Begum became speechless after hearing the news of her husband's death.
Tahmina Begum, mother of Faruque, told The Daily Star her son informed Shathi on Monday night that construction work might be stopped as the local youths were demanding extortions.
At Milon's house, around half a kilometre away from Faruque's house, his mother Helena Begum and sister Hanufa Begum, also the wife of the injured, were seen wailing.
"My son had taken training on how to drive a private car. He was working as a labourer to collect fees for getting a driving licence," Helena said.
"We had chosen a bride. He was supposed to get married after getting the licence," she added.
Locals said five criminal gangs were involved in land grabbing and collecting extortion from the land and building owners and businessmen in the area.