Mobs beat to death six thieves and injured seven others in Mymensingh and Kushtia districts yesterday.
In Mymensingh, four transformer thieves were beaten to death while six others wounded by villagers of Balipara in Trishal upazila around 2:45am.
Of the deceased, only the identity of Sabuj, 18, could be ascertained immediately, reports out Mymensingh correspondent.
Ram Krishna Das, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Trishal Police Station, said the gang of 10 thieves had stolen two transformers from Kanhar and Bhatiapara areas of the upazila. On their way to Baliapara by a truck, they were intercepted by a team of patrol police as two more transformers had recently been stolen in the area and police were cheking almost every truck plying the area to arrest the thieves.
Spotted, the gang had pelted the law enforcers with brick chips and kept speeding away with the truck. The patrol team then began to chase the truck, said the ASI.
Informed, police of the next check post barricaded the road. This time the law enforcers fired eight bullets in the air to warn the gang, said the ASI, adding that the move made the truck stop.
Meanwhile, hearing the gunshots locals had come out from all around, chased the fleeing thieves and managed to catch them, said Firoz Talukder, officer-in-charge (OC) of Trishal police, adding that the villagers beat the thieves up leaving two dead on the spot and the rest injured. The driver of the truck, however, managed to escape.
Police recovered the bodies and rushed the injured to the upazila health complex where two of the gang members succumbed to their injuries, the OC said.
They took four of the thieves — Hasan, 24, Faruk, 38, Rana, 28, and Milon, 25 — to police station while two were undergoing treatment at the health complex.
Police seized the truck and recovered the transformers from the spot, the OC said.
In Kushtia, a mob beat to death an alleged cow thief and injured his accomplice.
Deceased Sukur Ali alias Babu, 45, was of Raipur village of Shahjadpur upazila in Sirajganj, reports our Kushtia correspondent.
Babu with his accomplice Rustom had allegedly stolen a cow of one Farid Mollah of Cheuria village some time before the sunrise, said police quoting locals as saying.
As they were fleeing around 6:00am, after waiting for a good scope, villagers surrounded the two and beat them up mercilessly, leaving Babu dead on the spot, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in-charge of Kumarkhali Police Station, adding that Rustom had been admitted to Kushtia General Hospital.
-With The Daily Star input
