Extortion of money from passengers at Benapole
Hafizur Sheikh, Jashore
Extortion of passengers’ money from international check post Jashore’s Benapole passenger terminal area does not stop. It has become a daily occurrence. On Tuesday (September 3) around 11 a.m., Benapole Port Police Station, Market Committee and Transport Association sealed three shops in connection with the robbery incident. Around 2 lakh taka was stolen from eight passport holders on Monday afternoon. After this incident, the local BGB, Port and Market Committee recovered Tk 13,000 from a market lane of Benapole Checkpost. As the robbers fled, the rest of the money could not be recovered.
Sagar Hossain, a passenger who was robbed on Monday, said that he was standing in line in front of the passenger terminal in the morning to go to India. 23 thousand rupees were taken from him there. Later, when a complaint was made to the port authority, Tk 7 thousand was recovered from the robbers with the help of the port and BGB members. Even though the members of the law and order forces roam around these institutions, they do not see anything.
In this regard, Arms Battalion OC Badal Chandra, assigned to Benapole port, said that the incident of money robbery of passport holders is sad.
Benapole Port Police Officer-in-Charge OC Suman Bhakta said that many times the establishments of robbers have been locked and sealed and they have been arrested. They come back from jail and commit the same crime again. In order to completely stop the robbery, the police must cooperate with local businessmen, journalists and politicians. The operation to recover the stolen money of the passengers is continuing.