Pirates in guise of trawler owners loot homebound Eid passengers
Pirates looted cash and valuables from homebound passengers ahead of Eid in the guise of trawler owner on the river Jamuna near Aricha ghat under Shivalaya upazila on Friday night.
The gang also beat up a passenger and threw him into the river when he introduced himself as a police constable. The policeman was later identified as Abdul Goni.
Officer in-charge (OC) of Goalunda police station Abul Bashar said Pabna and Sirajganj-bound passengers numbering 10-15, most of them workers, hired a Kazirhat-bound trawler at around 7:30pm.
The pirates started looting cash and valuables from the passengers at gunpoint after 15 to 20 minuets of leaving Aricha ghat. Seeing the firearms, the passengers surrendered all their belongings to the pirates.
The gang later fled the scene along with the booty, leaving the passengers on a remote shoal.
Hearing their cry, a trawler which was passing by the shoal rescued them and took them to Daulatdia ghat in Rajbari at around 10:00pm.
The rescued passengers are -- Almas, Soleman, Mehedi Hasan, Masud Rana, Mahfuza Begum, Saiful Islam and others, the OC said.
Rajbari police superintendent Rezaul Haque, additional police superintendent Mizanur Rahman and assistant police superintendent Abdul Mannan visited the spot immediately after the incident, the Goalunda OC said.
Contacted, officer in-charge (OC) of Shivalaya police station Rezaul Karim said they launched several drives immediately after the incident and are trying to arrest the pirates and recover their cash and valuables.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments