‘Robbers’ chased into river while fleeing, shots fired, 2 beaten dead

While a suspected group of robbers were fleeing after committing a ‘robbery’, local people chased them down from both banks into the Kirtinasha River in Shariatpur Sadar upazila.

The robbers at the time fired shots and hurled crude bombs at the locals. Later, when the gang abandoned their speedboat and took shelter in a brick kiln, the locals surrounded them and beat them up. Two of them died.

The incident occurred on the banks of Kirtinasha River in Tentulia area under Domsar union of the upazila on Friday night. Police recovered the bodies of those two people and took them to Shariatpur Sadar Hospital around 1:00 am early on Saturday. The two bodies have been kept in Shariatpur Sadar Hospital morgue. Their identities could not be confirmed yet.

Police says that two people died while fleeing from a robbery after being beaten up by an angry mob of locals. Eight people were injured from the shots fired by the robbers in that incident. Five other members of the robber gang were injured in the mob beating and are being treated at Shariatpur Sadar Hospital. Three of those who suffered bullet injuries were referred to Dhaka.

According to Palang Model Police Station and local sources that a group of 10 to 12 people attacked a bulkhead, vessels used for transporting sand, on Kirtinasha River in Rajarchar area of Kalkini upazila in Madaripur around 9:30 pm on Friday. The workers of local vessels and the public chased them at the time.

The members of that gang and fired shots and hurled crude bombs while fleeing on a speedboat through the Kirtinasha River. When the news spread, locals chased them down from both banks of the river from Dadpur area to Tentulia area in Domsar union of Sariatpur. The members of the robber gang fired shots and hurled crude bombs at the locals then.

At one point, the group of 10 to 12 people took refuge in a brick kiln leaving their speed boat in the river at Tentulia area of Domsar union. The locals surrounded that brick kiln and detained as well as beat up seven of the robbers.

Later, police and army personnel dispersed the mob and rescued the injured robbers. When taken to Shariatpur Sadar Hospital around 1:00 am, the physician declared two of them dead. The police have seized the speedboat and a firearm used in the robbery.

A physician at Shariatpur Sadar Hospital, Muntasir Khan said that four people injured from the shots fired by the robbers were brought to the hospital around 10:30 pm. As two of them were in a critical condition, they were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

The other two are receiving treatment in Shariatpur. Later, seven more people were brought to the hospital in three phases after 12:00 am. Two of them were already dead when they were brought, he added.

Superintendent of police in Shariatpur, Nazrul Islam said that locals chased the members of a robber gang during an attempted robbery in Rajarchar area of ​​Kalkini upazila in Madaripur last night. To protect themselves, the robbers fired shots indiscriminately at the people while fleeing. They are working to identify the two people killed in the mob beating, he added.