Taiwanese couple attacked

A Taiwanese couple was attacked in their home in the capital's Uttara allegedly by three of their former employees early yesterday during a "burglary gone wrong".

Wang Ming Chee, 54, and his wife Lily Hawa, 50, were under treatment at the Apollo Hospitals. While Hawa was stated out of danger, the husband was under observation, police said, quoting doctors.

The attack on the couple came less than six weeks after the killings of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella in Gulshan and Japanese national Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur.

Police, however, claimed that the Taiwanese couple was hurt because they had tried to prevent the burglars from taking away Tk 6 lakh.

They said they had already arrested Jahangir, one of the three culprits, in Joydevpur area of Gazipur.

He had worn a mask while entering the house because he was a familiar face to the victims, said Officer-in-Charge Abu Bakar Miah of Uttara-East Police Station, quoting the detainee.

The other two were Jahangir's brothers-in-law and as off 11:00pm, they were absconding with the money, the OC added.

Bidhan Tripura, deputy commissioner (Uttara Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the three criminals used to work at a PVC door factory owned by Ming.

They later started working as sub-contractors and frequently visited Ming's office, just a floor down from his residence in the four-storey building in Uttara Sector-4.

The DC claimed that the trio went there around 12:30am and opened the collapsible gate of the building with a duplicate key, knowing very well that Ming had withdrawn Tk 6 lakh from a bank on Thursday.

Seeing the couple still awake, the criminals hit them with a solid object on their heads, and fled with the money, the DC added.