Cattle-laden truck hijacked in city

A truck carrying 15 cattle was hijacked by a machete-wielding gang on the capital's Manik Mia Avenue early yesterday.

The truck, also with eight people on board, was heading to the capital's Aftabnagar cattle market in Badda from Jhenidah.

As it reached the Asad Gate end of Manik Mia Avenue around 12:30am, some people from a pick-up van signalled it to stop, said Tanzimul Islam, whose father Nazrul Islam owned 14 of the 15 lost cattle "worth around Tk 15 lakh".

When the truck pulled over, five to six persons came out of the van and dragged down driver Swapan and Tanzimul from the cabin and three others from the rear.

Tanzimul said he and his elder brother Masum, 24, their helpers Chandu and Thandu and the driver were forced into the van, tied up and beaten up.

Divided in two groups, the gang took the truck in one direction and the pick-up van in another, he added.

Tanzimul and four others were dropped at Hatirjheel. They were found by a team of patrol police and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where they received primary treatment for injuries they had suffered in the beating.

Azizur Mollah, one of the staff who were on the cattle truck, said they were dropped at an "unknown place" and they too were found by patrol police. The cops took them to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.

GG Biswas, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, said they recovered the truck abandoned in Ashulia on the city outskirts yesterday morning. It was all empty.

Tanzimul's father Nazrul reached Badda earlier with another consignment of cattle. He said he had bought 30 cattle at Tk 60,000 to 1,50,000 in the last couple of weeks. The cattle taken away by the gang were worth around Tk 15 lakh.

Over the last few years, he brought his cattle to the market in the city's Uttara area. But after counting a loss of around Tk 1.5 lakh last year, he chose Badda this time. Driver Swapan, who is known to him, also suggested bringing the cattle to Badda.

Police detained Swapan based on allegation from Nazrul.

The incident took place even after police pledged additional measures to ensure smooth movement of cattle-laden vehicles across the country ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

It was also in an important area that houses the parliament building.

Police usually set up a checkpoint in front of Rajdhani School near the NAM building on Manik Mia Avenue at night to avert untoward incident in Sangsad Bhaban area. 

Wishing not to be named, a top official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Tejgaon division said the place of the occurrence is the avenue's Asad Gate end, a few hundred metres off the checkpoint.

After the cattle truck hijack, the officer who was in-charge of the checkpoint that night was summoned early morning but he claimed to be completely unaware of the incident, said the DMP official.