The Detective Branch of police arrested three suspected robbers and recovered seven stolen cattle along with a truck that was used in a highway heist that was perpetrated in Bogura's Sherpur upazila in the early hours of Thursday.
The arrests were made during overnight drives in Tangail's Kalihati upazila and the Jamuna Bridge West area.
According to police, cattle trader Jamal Uddin filed a case with Sherpur Police Station on Thursday, alleging that a gang of robbers looted 12 cattle, three mobile phones and Tk 15,000 in cash from him on the Bogura-Dhaka highway.
Police said Jamal had purchased the cattle from Rasulganj cattle market in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat district and was transporting them to Cumilla by truck on Wednesday night.
At around 2am on Thursday, when the truck reached the Chhonka area of Sherpur upazila, another truck blocked its way. A group of 10 to 12 armed robbers allegedly smashed the driver's side window, held the driver, helper and traders hostage and assaulted them with locally made weapons before fleeing with the cattle and other valuables.
The estimated value of the 12 stolen cattle was around Tk 1.58 million (15.8 lakh).
Following the case, a joint team of the District Detective Branch (DB) and Sherpur Police Station, led by DB Officer-in-Charge Iqbal Bahar, launched an operation based on intelligence information.
During a raid in the Hatiya area of Kalihati upazila late Thursday night, police arrested two suspects—Abdus Salam Sarkar, 35, and Bulu Mia, 28.
Police also recovered a truck allegedly used in the robbery and five of the stolen cattle, which were found dead inside the vehicle.
Based on information obtained during interrogation, detectives later conducted another raid in the Gol Chattar area under Jamuna Bridge West Police Station early Friday and arrested another suspect, Mahidul, 34.
Two more stolen cattle were recovered from his possession.
Police said similar drives are continuing to arrest the remaining members of the gang and recover the rest of the stolen cattle.
The district police disclosed the details at a press briefing on Friday afternoon.