Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have detained ten more people, including the ‘mastermind’ of the robbery incident after hijacking a Chattogram-bound bus in Tangail when a woman commuter was raped.
The mastermind was identified as Ratan Hossain, reports UNB.
According to a short message from the Rab Headquarters, the Rab members detained the 10 after conducting drives in Dhaka, Gazipur and Sirajganj on Sunday.
Further details will be revealed at a press breiefing at Rab’s media centre Monday noon.
On August 3, the spine-chilling crime occurred in Raktipara area of Tangail's Madhupur upazila.
When the bus took the busy Dhaka-Tangail Highway in the Natiapara area, the seven robbers whiffed out guns, hijacked the vehicle, and drove it towards Madhupur upazila.
Posing as passengers, the seven boarded the bus in two groups in a span of 10 minutes around 11pm after it resumed its onward journey following a stopover at a hotel in Sirajganj district.
Twenty-four people, including 22 passengers and two staffers, were on board the bus of ‘Eagle Paribahan’ at the time.
On a desolate stretch, the armed gang robbed the twenty-four people, including 22 passengers of cash, jewellery and mobile phones.
They then blindfolded the passengers and raped the woman commuter on board.
The passengers' ordeal continued for over three hours till the seven criminals forced them to get off the bus and drove the heavy vehicle towards Raktipara's Jam-e-Mosque, where they abandoned it and fled with the booty, police said.
An FIR was lodged in connection with the robbery and rape.
On Thursday, Raza Mia, 32, was arrested from the Deula area of Tangail district town, said police. Raza is a driver of ‘Jhatika Service’ bus in Tangail and lived in a rented house in Tangail new bus terminal area.
During interrogation, Raza told cops that he was the one who drove the bus while others held the passengers and staff hostage at gunpoint, said Sarkar Md Kaisar, superintendent of Tangail Police.
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