Dhaka, June 06: At least five criminals were killed
and 30 people, including nine policemen, were injured in a
gunbattle that followed an attack by bandits on peasants on
the southern Bangladesh coast, police said today.
More than 150 armed men, locally know as pirates or
bandits, yesterday stormed a new settlement of landless
peasants in remote Baiarchar area of Noakhali district, firing
indiscriminately on villagers and looting and burning their
houses, a police spokesman said.
A team of policemen posted in the trouble-prone area
rushed to the scene and fired back, leaving five attackers
dead, a duty officer at the district police control centre
said by telephone.
He added that the fleeing criminals carried away four
of their dead comrades.
Senior officials were today at the scene, more than 120
kms from Dhaka, to investigate the incident, the officer said.
Several Dhaka dailies reported today that seven people
died in the fighting.
The reports said that the attack, led by Solaiman --
known locally as "pirate commander" -- was aimed at grabbing a
fertile land mass which the government is using as a temporary
settlement for poor landless people under a coastal
a forestation programme.
A similar attack was launched last month, leaving several
people injured.
Bureau Report
