Three youths were detained after the law enforcers foiled a daring bank robbery attempt in broad daylight at Keraniganj in Dhaka district on Thursday afternoon.
After storming into the bank at about 2:00pm, the three masked youths, wielding fire arms held hostage at least 15 people, including bank staff and customers, inside the Jinjira branch of Rupali Bank.
The tension inside the bank soon spilled onto the nearby areas after one of the hostages screamed, alerting the guard at the bank鈥檚 entrance downstairs and people nearby.
Soon a crowd of hundreds gathered around the bank, leaving the robbers virtually confined just before the law enforcers rushed to the spot to tackle the incident.聽聽聽聽
Dhaka district superintendent of police Ahmad Muyeed said that three robbers surrendered in the afternoon, three hours after they entered the bank at 5:00pm.
鈥楩ifteen officials and clients, who were held hostage, were rescued. No one was harmed,鈥� he said.
The arrestees were identified as Md Lion Mollah Nirob, 22, a resident of Gopalganj, and Md Arafat, 16, and Md Sifat, 16, both hailing from south Keraniganj.
The police did not provide any more details about the robbers.
Police officer Muyeed said that he along with his team after reaching the scene communicated with the robbers, requesting them to surrender.
鈥業 told them that they could not escape as hundreds of people surrounded the building. We assured them that we would pay them their demanded ransom of Tk 15 lakh and asked them to surrender for their lives,鈥� he said.
The joint force team that responded to the emergency comprised members from the army, Rapid Action Battalion and police, he said.
Local people and law enforcers said that the incident occurred in the bank located in Chunkutia Pakapul area of south Keraniganj in the capital. The robbers demanded Tk 15 lakh in exchange of freeing the hostages.
They said that loudspeakers in the local mosque were used to alert people about the robbery attempt, sending a ripple of tension throughout the neighborhood.
A resident of the locality and eyewitness Mirza Md Taniz Uddin told 抖阴精品 that people gathered in hundreds, surrounding the building housing the bank. 鈥榃e surrounded the bank and locked its main entrance to prevent the robbers from escaping,鈥� he said.
Upon information, law enforcers arrived shortly afterward, surrounded the bank and called for the robbers to surrender, he said.
鈥榃e are glad that hostages were rescued unharmed. But the fear is not totally gone as it is very alarming that such an incident occurred in broad daylight,鈥� Taniz Uddin added.
