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Bangladesh
RAB member chopped to death by miscreants
2006-04-23
Oh boy, somebody's gonna pay for this.
Muggers chopped to death a member of the elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) after storming his house at Tongi and looted cash taka, gold ornaments and other valuables on Friday night. The victim was identified as Delwar Hossain (35), a constable at RAB Headquarter. Son of Ludai Mia, he hailed from Satash, Uttarpara under Tongi police station.

Tongi police said, a group of unidentified miscreants numbering about seven stormed into the house of Delwar and tied his brother Sadek Hossain with rope and hit his father as Delwar tried to save them the robbers. They chopped him indiscriminately with sharp weapons at around 10.30 on Friday night. The bandits also looted Tk 27,000 in cash, seven tolas of gold ornaments, mobile phone sets and other valuable things equivalent to Tk 1.46 lakh from the house and fled the scene with the booty.
You do wonder how an honest copper came to have such a stash ...
The injured Delwar was rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) with serious injuries on different parts of his body where the attending doctors declared him dead.

Sadek Hossain, brother of the victim filed a case of robbery and murder with Tongi police station in this connection. But police failed to arrest anyone in this connection.
No need, the RAB will handle this themselves. At 3 am. Near a secret lair.
When contacted over telephone SI Nasima of the Tongi police station told The Independent that they were yet to arrest anyone but several teams of police have been sent to different parts of Tongi to nab the culprits of the brutal killing.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  Hi Jim! The amount was 27,000, not 2,700.

Which would make it about $ 3,800.00.

And while this may be a lot of money in Bangladesh, it needs to be compared to what people over here would have in the bank.

And it could be money/gold that was the wife's dowry, and/or money/gold for a daughter's dowry as well, if they were thinking ahead...
Posted by: Phil   2006-04-23 17:41  

#9  These bandits must be awfully well connected or really stupid to take on the RAB.
Posted by: john   2006-04-23 17:29  

#8  The gold is probably his wife's dowry and family savings.

Many families in the Indian subcontinent have savings in jewelry. There is a lack of education on other forms of investment.

Gold jewelry there is not 14 karat, it is 24 karat and sold by weight.

International prices of gold goes up after a good monsson and harvest by Indian famers.
Something like 25 percent of all the gold ever mined is in India as women's jewelry.
Posted by: john   2006-04-23 17:28  

#7  This will hopefuly post the links.

Money Converter
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert ?amt=2700&from=BDT&to=USD&submit=Convert
(Link broken with a space between convert and the Question mark, close the space for the full link)

Weight and Mass converter
http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_all.htm

Live Market Gold Quotes
http://www.kitco.com/market/index.html

Bangladesh Information MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
http://www.mofa.gov.bd/publications.htm
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-04-23 11:45  

#6  Damn, none of the links worked
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-04-23 11:35  

#5  I found a good exchange rate calculator
Linky
Turns out 2700 taka is $38.86 USD
Not much money

A weight converter
secondlinky
puts seven tolas at 2 troy ounces of gold, at current gold price this is about USD $630 for a two ounce take of $1260
goldlinky
total of both thefts is USD$1300 (Aprox)

This doesn't really translate into much as far as American money goes, but since an average pay in Bangla is about pe 444 US dollars. banglalinky this translates into about 3 months pay, a pretty good sum, but nowhere near a fortune.
(I'm trying a new form of link, no more page explosions, I hope)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-04-23 11:35  

#4  You get a much finer kerf that way.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-04-23 07:44  

#3  They chopped him indiscriminately with sharp weapons at around 10.30
Bad business this. First RAB death by cross cut.
Posted by: 6   2006-04-23 07:31  

#2  The pieces injured of Delwar was rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) with serious injuries on different parts of his body parts, where the attending doctors declared him dead.

wait till 6 sees this.
Posted by: RD   2006-04-23 03:39  

#1  You know, one might actually want to have the exchange rate handy before saying that's a big stash. I don't know what sort of inflation Bangladesh has been going through lately, but if people are putting their money into gold the way the victim might have been it suggests it's bad.
Posted by: Phil   2006-04-23 00:45  

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