Gunmen attack police-army joint checkpost in Alikadam at midnight

Gunmen attacked a joint police and army checkpost in Bandarban's Alikadam upazila at around 1:00am Friday (5 April) further increasing panic in the district.

"The gunmen attacked around 1:00am at the Dim Pahar area by breaking through the joint checkpost by driving a vehicle," Alikadam Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Tabidur Rahman told The Business Standard at around 2:20am.

"At that time, the police and army personnel present at the checkpost fired at them and a gunfight ensued for a while. No casualties have been reported yet. We are on alert," the OC added.

The attack came only hours after a robbery attempt at a Sonali Bank branch in the district's Thanchi upazila at around 8:30pm Thursday (4 April). The robbers were forced to retreat following a gunfight with the police and the Border Guard Bangladesh. This was the second attack on the bank branch within a day.

"Over 100 armed robbers attacked the Thanchi upazila branch of Sonali Bank at around 8:30pm. But their attack was foiled by the law enforcers. Now, shooting is ongoing between the two groups with intervals," Md Rayhan Kazemi, additional superintendent of Bandarban Police, told The Business Standard.

"At around 8:30pm a group of armed robbers tried to head towards the bank but the BGB and the police stopped them," Thanchi Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mohammad Mamun said.

"After facing the law enforcers, the robbers fired shots towards them. At one point of the shootout, the criminals retreated. Police fired around 400-500 rounds of bullets," he added.

Bandarban has been reeling for the past two days from a string of robbery attacks suspected to have been carried out by the armed hill group Kuku-Chin National Front (KNF).

Within a span of 16 hours since last Tuesday (2 March), three banks in Bandarban were robbed and the Manager of Sonali Bank's Ruma branch Nizam Uddin was kidnapped.

The first robbery occurred at Sonali Bank's Ruma branch around 8:30pm on Tuesday, followed by the second and third robberies at Sonali Bank's and Krishi Bank's Thanchi branches around noon on Wednesday.

Later, on Thursday the KNF claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and asked Tk15 lakh in ransom to free Nizam. In the evening, around 7:30pm, the armed group handed him over to his family members after the ransom was paid.