Pabna mob beats three to death

An angry mob beat three people to death on suspicion of kidnapping children in Pabna's Santhia upazila yesterday.

The dead were Alal, 50, of Dinajpur; Aslam Hossain, 42, of Natore; and Bakkar Hossain, 44. Police said they were relatives.

Witnesses said the trio were dragged out of a bus and beaten to death in broad daylight in front of a local market.

“Some eight to 10 people pulled the three out of a Sirajganj-bound bus around 11:45am, suspecting them to be kidnappers. They beat them up in front of a shop in Chotur Bazar area,” transport worker Faruk Hossain, who witnessed the incident, told The Daily Star.

He said he recognised neither the victims nor the attackers.

Police said they were investigating the incident and would also try to find if it was a planned murder.

“Angry people chased the victims on suspicion of kidnapping children and beat them up mercilessly in front of a shop of C&B Chotur Bazar area in the upazila around 12:00pm,” Alamgir Kabir, superintendent of police in Pabna, told The Daily Star.

Locals gave different versions of the incident. Some even claimed that the victims came to the area in a microbus to “abduct” a child. They, however, denied seeing any microbus.

On information, police rushed there and tried to bring the situation under control. But the mob also attacked them, police claimed.

“When I tried to rescue the victims from the angry mob, some people attacked me. Others then came forward and saved me,” Santhia Police Station Sub-Inspector Rafique told The Daily Star.

As it was the weekly hat day, hundreds of people gathered in the area and, therefore, it became very difficult for them to bring the situation under control, he said, adding that the mob went berserk after the rumour of kidnapping had spread in the area.

Liton Kumar Shah, additional superintendent of police in Pabna, told The Daily Star that the story of microbus was quite meaningless as nobody had seen it.

Quoting the witness, Liton claimed that the victims might be dragged from the bus, but no passenger of the bus informed them of anything like that.

“Police are investigating whether it is a planned murder,” he added.

Locals claimed that several incidents of child abduction took place in the upazila in the last few weeks and they worried over the incidents.