The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

Four alleged snatchers were killed in a lynch-mob attack and three others including an auto-rickshaw driver injured near Bhatiyari under Sitakund police station yesterday morning.

The deceased were identified as Baset, 31, Hashem, 28, Khorshed, 27, and Rowshan, 30.

This is the second incident of lynching in the port city and its suburb in less than a month. Two snatchers were lynched near the city's Nasirabad area late last month.

Police recovered an ammunition-laden home-made Light Gun (LG) from the spot. Firing of gunshot did not take place so far. Cops and the eyewitnesses said that locals caught the armed robbers red-handed after a brief chase at about 11:35 a.m. when they were escaping the scene after looting Taka 7500 thousand from Quashem Munshi, a villager.

Three of the seven robbers were caught red-handed near Bhatiari Union Council while four others from Jalil gate area at South Bhatiari on Chittagong-Dhaka highway.

Six youths - Chanchal, Sorwar, Abul Quashem, Based, Khorshed and Hashem - stopped Quashem Munishi and took away the cash at gunpoint when he just came out of Bhatiari branch of the Jamuna Bank. He cashed the amount for a land purchase deal.

Munshi raised alarm when the robbers attempted to escape the scene. Passers-by and the locals instantly caught three of the robbers and assaulted them mercilessly.

Four other robbers took an auto-rickshaw bearing registration plate Chatta-Metro-Tha-11-5591 and disappeared from the scene. Locals called their relations over cell-phone and sought help.

At this stage a group of motorcyclists started chasing the auto-rickshaw. They finally stopped the auto-rickshaw near Jalil gate and beat the robbers and auto-rickshaw drivers mercilessly. Two of the robbers died on the spot.

The fatally wounded robbers had been struggling for survival. Locals reportedly in presence of cops celebrated lynching of the robbers. The careless policemen did not take a move to take the wounded robbers to the nearby hospital.

Sub-Inspector Arjun and his team had been escorting the wounded robbers. When asked, the policeman said that they had been waiting for transport to take the wounded robbers to hospital though many motor vehicles had been parked nearby. Officer-in-Charge of Sitakund police station Abdus Salam visited the spot.

Neither the bodies nor the injured were removed from the spot till the time filing this report on Wednesday noon. Move for recording a case had been on progress.