Brave guard foils bank robbery

Abdul Wahab Talukdar

Robbers hit him repeatedly on the head with an iron wrench. He fell on the floor, blood spilling from his head. He lay still for a while.

He, however, did not faint from loss of blood. Nor did he recoil in fear. When the robbers, three to four people, left him there and moved inside, he resolved to save the bank's coffers. So he knew he had to act fast.

Still writhing in pain, he slowly stood up, staggered to the guard room and locked it from inside. Then he called the bank officers, grabbed his gun and scared the robbers away.

This is the story of Abdul Wahab Talukdar, an ordinary night guard of Janata Bank's Sat Masjid Road Corporate Branch at Zigatola in the capital.

Perhaps you will not even notice him when you pass the branch at night. But this ordinary man, in an act of bravery, risked his life to foil the robbery attempt on Wednesday night.

The bank rewarded him with Tk 2,00,000 in recognition of his bravery on Thursday.

“Like any other day, I went to buy rice from a shop around 7:30pm. When I entered the branch on the first floor, I heard voices inside and thought they might be robbers,” Wahab told The Daily Star yesterday. He suffered serious head injury and is now undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Police said the robbers had broken into the building through a window from the back side.

One of the robbers held him tight from behind. As he tried to set himself free, they started hitting on his head. He fell flat on the floor. Though his head bled badly, he did not quite lose his sense. He even heard one of the robbers saying that he had died already.

This was how Wahab narrated his story.

“I lay silent for a few minutes, made my way slowly to the guard's room and called my officers to bring police," he said.

Then he took his gun from an Almira. Seeing a gun in his hand, the robbers fled away.

Fahmida Rahman, assistant manager of the branch, arrived there quickly with police and took him to hospital.

The police thanked him heartily.    

Asked about the way he was recognised by the bank, Wahab said he is happy for it.

Thanking the bank management for the reward, he said, “While on duty, my responsibility is to protect the organisation even if it has to be done at the cost of my life.”

Janata Bank Chairman Shaikh Md Wahid-Uz-Zaman said, “Such an act of bravery is not expected from an ordinary person like him. The bravery he has shown definitely deserves recognition.”

Hailing from Shibchar in Madaripur district, Wahab, now 50 years old, has been serving the bank as a security guard for 28 years.  His job was made permanent in 2012 and now he earns around Tk 11,000 with which he runs his family and bears the educational expenses of his two daughters studying at higher secondary level.

A case has been filed with Hazaribagh police station in this connection.