Two sand dredgers were robbed in the Dhaleshwari River, just 200 yards from the tannery Industrial City police outpost. There is an army camp next to the outpost.
Ignoring all this, the robbers, armed with pistols, ramdas, chapatis and other country-made weapons, beat up the employees in the dredgers and looted goods worth more than Tk 2lakh . The robbery took place on Wednesday night.
Two workers of the sand dredger, Belal Hossain (34) and Badal (30), were injured in the attack and beating by the robbers. They were rescued and given first aid.
Arif, the owner of the robbed sand dredger, said that around 11:30 pm, a group of 10-12 robbers boarded my sand dredger in a black, silent long trawler and took the staff hostage at gunpoint.
Later, the robbers beat up the dredger employees and looted 250 liters of diesel, two large batteries, 4 iron impellers (fans), a self-dynamo and 5 mobile phones, cash worth about 30 thousand taka and other goods worth more than two lakh taka. There is a police outpost and an army camp nearby. Although the matter was reported to the tannery outpost police, they did not take any action.
He also said that he would file a written complaint with the Savar Model Police Station in this incident.
Kabir Hossain, the owner of another dredger, said that after the robbery of Arif Bhai's dredger, they also tried to rob our dredger while we were returning. But since we had already understood the matter, the robbers quickly took a trawler and headed towards Alipur.
Kabir Hossain complained that since August 5, my dredger has been robbed 3 times. But since the police did not take any action, he has not filed any complaints now. The dredger employees also do not want to work due to fear of the robbers. Currently, one of my 3 dredgers is operational, the rest are being shut down for fear of robbers.
I have kept the dredger running for fear of my life and for my stomach. If the law enforcement officers do not provide us with security, we will have to shut it down too.
Savar Tannery Outpost In-charge (Inspector) Sirajul Islam Sabuj said, I am in a meeting in Dhaka. I have heard that some things including mobile phones have been made from the dredger, but this is not a robbery.
ZH
