8 killed in daring daylight bank break

FE Report | Published: April 22, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

At least eight people were killed and several injured in a daring daylight gang attack on a private commercial bank in Ashulia on the outskirts of the city Tuesday.
Police and locals said the manager of Kathgara Bazar branch of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd and one of the suspected bandits are among the dead.      
The suspect was beaten to death by an angry mob while another of the armed gang handed over to police, bank and police sources said.
According to them, a number of robbers came by riding motorbikes and got in the bank in the guise of customers about 3:00 pm.
"Brandishing grenade, they held hostage manager Md Waliullah and other officials and asked for keys of the bank vault," says a firsthand account of the heist.
On his denial, the bandits started hacking him with sharp weapons. They also chopped and opened fire on the branch's security guards, leaving all of them seriously injured.
Unleashing terror by charging grenade and firing bullets, they looted a handsome amount of cash from the bank's cash counters, officials said.
A sum of Tk 0.5 million of the looted money was later recovered.
Following the sounds of grenade, bullets and shouting, and an announcement from the adjacent Mosque about the gang attack, locals hemmed in the dacoits in the branch, a bank official said.
Chased by the locals, the robbers tried to flee the spot opening fire, leaving the branch manager, security guards, some customers and pedestrians critically injured.
After they were taken to hospitals, officials said, seven, including the branch manager, Mr Waliullah, two security personnel of the bank, a customer of the bank named Palash and a pedestrian died at the hospital till the filing of this report at about 8:30 pm.
The mob caught two of the robbers-Raju and Mamun-while they were fleeing and lynched one of them.
"We will lodge case with the Ashulia police station over the incident today," Abu Sadek Md. Sohel, managing director and CEO of the bank, told the FE at about 8:15pm Tuesday.
Quoting the police officials, Mr Sohel further said that the law enforcers took primary information from the bank in this connection to look into the robbery.
"The incident happened within very short span of time, say, 3-4 minutes," he said to a query, adding that the branch was covered by the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance.
The injured ones were admitted to the nearby Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar, a bank official said, quoting the doctors.
Conditions of some of them are critical, he said, adding that the death toll might rise.
The incident of broad daylight robbery followed a series of looting of cash from bank vaults in different areas of the country, especially at nights, in the near past.
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