No money looted from Sonali Bank in Ruma: CID

No money was looted from the Sonali Bank branch in Ruma Upazila of Bandarban and all the money in the vault of the bank is intact.

Shahnewaz Khaled, special superintendent of police of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Chattogram region, told Prothom Alo about 4:30 pm today, Wednesday.

He said two teams from CID’s Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar units have collected different evidences from the spot. Later, they counted all the money in the vault of the bank and found that no money was looted from the vault of the bank.

He said the two keys of the vault need to be used at once to open the vault. Probably the armed men could not open the vault for this reason.

The members of new militant group Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) tried to loot the Sonali Bank branch in Ruma on Tuesday night.

The incident occurred during Taraweeh prayers. The robbers looted 14 weapons from the Ansar members guarding the bank and allegedly abducted the bank manager, Nizam Uddin, from the mosque on the bank premises.

Ruma police station officer-in-charge (OC) Muhammad Shahjahan said that the “hilltop-based armed terrorists” looted the bank’s money and weapons and abducted the bank manager.

Confirming the incident, Sonali Bank Bandarban district branch manager Rajan Kanti Das said that he was informed of the incident but had not yet been able to contact the bank manager.

He said that on Tuesday, the salaries and bonuses of the employees for Eid were taken to the bank. At night, the armed terrorist group attacked the bank. They looted the cash from the bank, along with 14 weapons and the bank manager, Md. Nizam Uddin.

Bandarban district police additional superintendent of police (administration and finance) Hossain Md. Raihan Kazemi said that the incident of bank robbery, arms looting and abduction had taken place.

He said that an emergency meeting was underway with the district police and the army. He said that further details would be provided later.