Schoolboy kidnapped

Criminals shoot mother, sister, driver before leaving on motor bikes

Using a style seen in Hollywood action films, criminals abducted a six-year-old boy, shooting the mother, sister and the driver of their family car at Shuvadda Paschim Para in Keraniganj yesterday.

Lipi Rani Mondol, 32, was about to make the school run yesterday morning with her son Parag Mondol, a student of KG-I at Heed International School, 11-year-old daughter Pinaki Mondol and eight-year-old daughter Piyal Mondol in their chauffeur-driven car.

Around 7:15am, when they were about to get into the car parked just 60 metres away from their home, four criminals on two motorbikes ambushed them.

One of the men rather politely told Lipi that they needed the car and it would be returned by afternoon. Lipi said she needed her car as her children had exams. At this point, one of the criminals grabbed Parag.

Lipi tried to stop them and was shot twice, once in the chest and then in the leg. Pinaki too tried to save Parag and she too was shot in the leg.

Finally, the family’s driver Nazrul Islam tried to stop the criminals taking away Parag and received a bullet in the arm.

A panicked Piyal Mondol made a run for it screaming.

One of the abductors knocked Parag out with a blow to the back of the head with a firearm butt. They put a helmet on Parag’s head before leaving the scene with him on their bikes.

Nobody could identify the criminals.

The incident happened in front of about 20 bystanders who could do little to stop the armed criminals. They rushed the three injured to Mitford Hospital in Old Dhaka.

Lipi was later referred to National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital. There she underwent a surgery which doctors claimed to have been successful.

Pinaki also had to have further treatment at the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation.

All three have been declared out of danger by doctors.

Bimol Chandra Mondol, Parag’s father and a successful businessman, told The Daily Star that he had no personal feuds to speak of and that he neither received any threats or demand for toll.

Bimol, who owns JC Battery Engineering Works in Tantibazar and a lot of highly valued pieces of land around his home, said he was waiting anxiously for the kidnappers to call and may be ask for a ransom.

An emotional Bimol said he only wants his son back.

No ransom demand had been made as of filing of this report at 9:30pm.

Officer-in-Charge Shakhowat Hossain of South Keraniganj Police Station said police and intelligence agencies were trying to find Parag and were exploring all possibilities.

He said no case had been filed and nobody was detained in this connection.

Source: The Daily Star