A covered van belonging to AJR Courier Service was set on fire by unidentified assailants in front of Rayerbazar wholesale market in Dhaka on Thursday night, destroying most of the goods and important documents inside.
The company has estimated the initial financial loss at Tk1crore to Tk1.5crore, warning that the amount could rise after the value of documents belonging to banks and insurance companies is assessed.
Jayanta Chowdhury, AGM of AJR Group, alleged that a criminal gang had been demanding extortion money from the company’s management for a long time. He claimed that the group had repeatedly targeted the company’s offices and vehicles with attacks and arson after failing to receive the demanded money.
He said the attacks began with an arson incident at the company’s office in Narayanganj, followed by attacks on its vehicles in Shahbagh and Rayerbazar.
In another incident in Mirpur, the attackers allegedly threw a petrol bomb and attempted to set an employee on fire with the intention of killing him.
The latest attack in Rayerbazar destroyed goods and important documents belonging to the company’s customers, small businesses, banks and insurance companies, Jayanta said.
He expressed concern over the safety and job security of the company’s employees, most of whom come from low-income backgrounds.
Calling for urgent government intervention, he urged the authorities to ensure the safety of employees, help restore normal business operations and bring those responsible for the attacks and acts of sabotage to justice.
Earlier attack on Hazaribagh warehouse
The latest incident comes less than a month after an alleged attack on an AJR Parcel and Courier Service Ltd warehouse in Hazaribagh.
On 20 October, a group of 70 to 80 people allegedly stormed and vandalised the company’s warehouse and looted equipment worth around Tk31lakh.
The incident took place around 6:44pm at the company’s central sorting centre warehouse on Mendi Dental College Road, behind Sikder Medical College in Hazaribagh.
The company initially wanted to file a robbery case. However, police said the primary motive behind the attack was extortion and informed the company that a case would be recorded over the alleged extortion.
The following morning, Afsar Uddin, manager of the company’s Human Resources and Administration Department, filed a written complaint with Hazaribagh Police Station against 70 to 80 unidentified people.
According to the complaint, the attackers arrived at the warehouse’s western gate on 35 to 40 motorcycles, wearing masks and helmets. Around 40 to 50 of them allegedly broke the CCTV cameras before entering the premises, while the others remained outside.
The complaint also alleged that eight to nine attackers were carrying firearms, while two to three others had weapons resembling shotguns.
The attackers allegedly took away a Cisco core device, a router, nine Dahua network video recorders (NVRs) of different capacities, 38 hard drives with a capacity of 10 terabytes each, a server rack, 40 cameras, eight CPUs, eight monitors and a laptop.
The company estimated the market value of the stolen equipment at around Tk31lakh.
The complaint also referred to an earlier incident on 18 October, when two men arrived at the warehouse on a motorcycle around 10:30pm and asked for Operations Manager Nizam Uddin.
After failing to find him, the two allegedly threatened the security guards before leaving. The company claimed to have CCTV footage of the incident.
The complaint further alleged that a person named Jewel later disclosed plans to attack, loot and occupy another office of the company.
Afsar Uddin also alleged that a person named Saiful had been calling him and threatening him to suppress the robbery incident. The complaint further stated that an individual identifying himself as Captain Imon had previously demanded extortion money from the company.
Afsar Uddin reportedly received death threats from an unidentified caller after filing the complaint.
