Criminals kill one, injure two to take away rod-laden truck; mills, transport owners concerned at rise in such crimes
A truck helper was killed and his two colleagues were injured as carjackers threw them from a running truck in the capital’s Agargaon area, after hijacking the rod-laden truck from Savar yesterday.
A gang waylaid the Kushtia-bound truck at Hemayetpur on the outskirts of the capital around 5:30am, said Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station.
As soon as driver Abu Sayeed pulled up the truck, the criminals got on it and tied Sayeed and his two assistants with ropes, he said.
The robbers then drove of with the truck, which was carrying about 20 tonnes of iron rods worth about Tk 14 lakh, towards the capital.
The three were thrown into the compound of the Old Airport in the capital from where the police recovered them.
The dead is Nazrul Islam, 35, of Islamnagar under Meherpur Sadar upazila. The other injured are Sayeed, 45, and his other helper Rajab Ali, 25.
Sayeed and Rajab said the criminals tied their hands and legs, blindfolded them with napkins and wrapped them with the thick cover of the truck.
“They snatched our cell phones [three] and Tk 13,000 from us. They also strangulated us with rope to kill us,” said Sayeed, adding, “The criminals threw us into the
Old Airport thinking that we were dead.”
Narrating the carjacking, the driver said, “It was 5:34am. I slowed down my truck to let a bus pass by at Hemayetpur. The bus sped away, but in the meantime a truck
overtook me and suddenly stopped obstructing my way.
“Within a moment, 12 to 15 men got down from the truck. They then got on our truck and swooped on us and took control over my truck before we could understand
anything.”
He said they begged for their lives but the hijackers took them on their truck.
Sayeed added they were thrown off the truck about half an hour later. After freeing himself, he jumped over the Old Airport wall and found a police van patrolling.
Police then took them to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared Nazrul dead.
According to police record, 70 incidents of robbery on bus and truck happened in and around the capital last year.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Auto Re-Rolling and Steel Mills Association leaders yesterday expressed deep concern over the growing trend of such incidents.
Talking to The Daily Star, Abul Kashem Majumder, secretary general of the association, said incidents of hijacking of trucks loaded with rods or other goods are
increasing day by day.
“Owners and traders reported to me at least 22 such incidents in the last six months in and around the capital,” Kashem said and added, “Criminals are getting
desperate taking advantage of police reluctance in checking the menace.”
He said the association leaders met the home minister, the inspector general of police, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner and other police personnel
concerned. “But there is no respite from it.”
A syndicate with strong links is involved in such hijacking, he alleged.
Rustum Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Owners Association, said, “We are now totally insecure. Not only are vehicles are hijacked, the lives
of our drivers and helpers are at grave risks.”
However, Asaduzzaman Miah, DIG of Dhaka Range Police, claimed that since he took over, policing to stop such crimes has intensified.
“The number of such incidents is now declining while the rate of recovery has increased”, he said, adding, “Most of the stolen vehicles were recovered with goods.”
He said that he asked businessmen and truck owners to use Global Positioning System (GPS) in all the vehicles to avert such incidents and also inform the district
police control room before the trucks enter the district.
DIG Humayun Kabir, chief of Highway Police, however, said “We don’t have adequate manpower and transport facilities to secure the entire highway.”
-With The Daily Star input
