Staff Reporter :At least eight persons, including a branch manager, were killed and 25 others injured in a broad daylight dacoity in a bank at Ashulia in Savar on Tuesday.The dacoity took place at Khatghara Bazar branch of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited. Police recovered five bodies from inside the bank. Another body of a suspected dacoit, who was killed in mob beating when he tried to flee, was found outside the bank, a few hundred yards from the spot.The dead were identified as: Branch Manager of the bank Oli Ullah, 40, a client Mohammad Sahabuddin Palash, 55, bank’s gunman Md Badrul Islam,28, a local grocery shop owner Md Monir, 60, and owner of a workshop Zillur Rahman, 40. The name of dacoit could not be known immediately. All the six were killed during the dacoity.Later, two others succumbed to their injuries at Enam Medical College and Hospital in the evening raising the death toll to eight till the time filing if this report at 10:00pm. The dacoits blasted several grenades and crude bombs, chopped indiscriminately and fired bullets as they were trying to flee away with the looted money. As a result, 25 people were injured. Of them, the condition of ten bullet-injured victims was stated to be critical.According to locals and cashier of bank Tariqul Islam, a gang of 9-10 dacoits equipped with sophisticated firearms came to the bank riding three motor cycles at about 2:00pm. They entered the bank in the guise of clients. They cordoned bank’s branch manager and asked him to give the keys of vault showing live grenades. The dacoits started chopping the manager with machetes and shot him from point-blank-range when he refused to give the vault keys. They also shot bank’s gunman Badrul and chopped him severely. Being failed to loot the vault, they exploded a grenade inside the bank and looted cash from the cash counter. A client of the bank Mohammad Sahabuddin Palash was killed during the shootout at the time.Hundreds of local people rushed to the spot hearing the gunshots and grenade blasts, and chased the dacoits. They urged the villagers to resist the dacoits through loudspeaker of a local mosque. A local grocery shop owner Monir Hossain was killed being fired by the dacoits. Witnesses said, the agitated locals caught two dacoits as they fell from the motorcycle. Of them, one dacoit was killed by mob beating. Another dacoit was handed over to the police after a good beating. Police were interrogating the arrested dacoits in the custody. Other dacoits, however, managed to escape the scene with the booty through different ways in the locality, witnesses said.Police rushed to the spot after getting ‘SOS’ phone call from the bank. But seeing relaxed mood of police, the angry locals attacked the police convoy and vandalized two police vans. Later, additional police force rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. Superintendent of Police of Dhaka Habibur Rahman said the incident took place around 3:00 pm. ‘”The bodies have been kept at Enam Medical College and Hospital at Savar for autopsy,” he said.Director [Public Relations] of Enam Medical College and Hospital Zahidur Rahman said that they have got five bullet-riddle bodies. “Besides, 25 others have been admitted to the hospital for treatment,” he said. Officer-in-Charge of Ashulia Police Station Mostafa Kamal said five live grenades and several cocktails have been recovered from the spot. “We have also recovered a motorcycle used by the dacoits from the spot,” he said. No media man was allowed to enter the bank by the police after the incident.Meanwhile, police recovered a bag containing Tk six lakh from Amtoli area in the evening. Police suspected that the bag with money was abandoned by dacoits when they were on the run. A bomb disposal unit of Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] reached to the spot to defuse the live grenades and cocktails in and outside the bank. Besides, different teams of police, RAB and other intelligence agencies have started massive hunt down to nab the dacoits setting up several check posts on the Dhaka-Tangail highway and other adjacent roads.
