An officer of the Detective Branch of police was killed following an attack by a gang of robbers at Gazaria upazila in Munshiganj yesterday.
The deceased is Shariful Islam Khan, 33, a sub-inspector of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said Zakir Hossain Mazumder, additional superintendent of police of the district.
Shariful hailed from Tangail.
DB police had a tip-off that a gang of robbers would be transporting to the capital an electric transformer stolen from Comilla Cantonment or the district’s Chouddogram area, said Munshiganj Additional Superintendent of Police Tarikul Islam.
On the Meghna-Gomoti bridge, a police team had been waiting in ambush for the truck carrying the transformer. On a minibus, another team was following the truck.
The first team barricaded the highway at Gazaria around 5:30am and stopped the truck, said Officer-in-Charge Jahangir Alam of Gazaria Police Station.
As Shariful tried to board the truck, a robber hit him in the head with a rod, leaving him critically injured, added the OC.
The truck then rammed into the police minibus behind it and drove away.
One of the teams took Shariful to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the other chased after the truck.
In Hossaindi area of Gazaria, the robbers abandoned the truck and started running off the road.
At one stage, the law enforcers and the gang engaged in a shoot-out. One of the gang members, Shipon, received a bullet and fell to the ground.
The others managed to make a getaway.
Shariful was declared dead when police rushed him to the DMCH.
Shipon, 23, is now undergoing treatment at the DMCH under police guard.
-With The Daily Star input
