Six men said to be getting away after committing a robbery and killing a grocer were beaten to death at Companyganj in Noakhali early Wednesday.
The police arrested three other robbery suspects at the place at Miarteka of Charkakra in the upazila.
The Companyganj police officer-in-charge, Moham-mad Rafique Ullah, and the local people said that a group of about 25 men had burgled into houses of Wadud Mia, Seraj Mia and Mafiz Mia and looted valuables at gunpoint about 3:00am.
Local people rushed to the spot as the occupants of the houses cried out for help after the group had left. On reaching Miarteka, the group tried to break into the shop of Mosharaf Hossain Masud and shot dead Mosharraf when he cried out for help.
The local people had reached the place by the time and captured nine of them. Six were beaten to death and the police rescued the remaining three. Others managed to get away firing shots.
The four of the people beaten to death who could be identified are Alauddin, 30, Pichchi Kalam, 25, Faruk, 28, and Negro Helal, 25.
The additional superintendent of police in Noakhali AFM Nizam Uddin said the people beaten to death had robbery cases against them.
The police, having recovered the bodies from the spot, sent them to the Noakhali Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.
The arrested are Nur Islam, 22, Abdullah, 26, and Mohammad Rubel, 20. The police also recovered four knives, four mobiles and 15 bullets from them.
According to statistics provided by human rights organisation Odhikar, 75 people were beaten to death across the country in January–June 2011.
-With New Age input
