Even a coffin-carrying ambulance not spared

An ambulance carrying a body and a microbus with family members of the deceased were attacked by robbers at capital's Tekerjaga in Khilgaon early yesterday.

The alleged robbers hurt at least two people -- a son and a grandson of the deceased -- and looted cash, gold ornaments and valuables from the vehicles, which were heading for Mirzapur in Tangail.

According to the victims, the robbers had looted several other vehicles at the same spot before they were attacked.

The injured were identified as Sukumar Sarker, 55, and his son Joy Sarker, 19, who was admitted to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in the capital.

Paritosh Sarker, eldest son of the deceased, said his mother died at Fatikchhari in Chittagong on Friday. They stopped at Khilgaon in Dhaka en route to their ancestral home in Mirzapur to pick up some family members, he added.

"I was in the ambulance along with the driver and my mother's body. Another microbus with eight family members was following us," Paritosh, headmaster of Trimohoni High School in Khilgaon, told The Daily Star over the phone.

He said when the two vehicles approached Nandipara around 1:45am through Demra- Khilgaon Notun Rasta, a comparatively deserted place, and reached Tekerjaga near Nandipara, they saw three to four CNG-run auto-rickshaws and two sand-carrying trucks blocking the road.

"In the headlight we saw a person tied by a piece of rope to a CNG auto-rickshaw and several others held hostages by a group of armed men," said Paritosh.

Both the drivers immediately tried to turn their vehicles around but were stopped by the robbers armed with sharp weapons, he added.

"The robbers forced me out of the car and slapped me. They also made the others in the microbus get out and ordered everyone to hand over whatever they had," he said.

"We appealed to the looters to spare us since we would need the money for the last rites of my mother," said Paritosh.

But, the robbers took Tk 26,000 in cash, more than four tolas of gold ornaments and four mobile phones, he added.

They also attempted to assault the women, but as Joy Sarker resisted, the robbers started to beat him up.

"My brother Sukumar tried to save him and the robbers hit him by a machete in his left arm," said Paritosh, adding that there were around 20 men, aged between 15 to 30, all wearing lungi, tucked like loincloths, and shirts wrapped around their waists.

In about 15 to 20 minutes they escaped on foot through the lowland by the road.

Paritosh said the robbers left their hostages, the CNG auto-rickshaw drivers, who claimed they had been robbed too.

Officer-in-Charge of Khilgaon police Kazi Mainul Islam said they had been reported about the incident.