Stolen cow traced by its footprints in Gournadi, accused's house set on fire

In Gournadi, Barisal, local people detained three suspected cattle thieves and handed them over to police. Over the incident, an agitated crowd set fire to the accused man's house. A cowshed was set ablaze first, in the presence of police, and a dwelling house was torched later, after police had left.

The incident took place on Thursday morning in Shahjira village of Sarikal union in the upazila, spreading tension across the area.

The detained men are Aziz Mira, Sakil Hossain and Noyon Shikdar. All of them are residents of the same area.

According to local sources, at around 3:30am on Wednesday night a stolen cow was recovered from Aziz Mira's cowshed by several local people. Residents then confronted Aziz Mira's family. Sensing the situation turning serious, family members called the national emergency service number 999 for help. On receiving the news, members of the Sarikal police investigation centre reached the spot at around 4am.

Local resident Adam Ali Shikdar said that, with cattle theft rising in the area recently, he guarded his cowshed until 3am on Wednesday night before falling asleep. A little later, finding his cow missing from the cowshed, he went out searching for it.

Adam Ali said rain during the night had left the cow's footprints visible in the mud. Following those prints he reached Aziz Mira's house. Asked about keeping cattle, Aziz denied doing so. Then, hearing a cow's sound from his cowshed, Adam Ali went inside and identified his own cow.

Another village resident, Nasir Khan, alleged that one of his cows went missing 10 days ago. Hearing on Thursday morning that a stolen cow had been recovered from Aziz Mira's house, he went there. Beside the cowshed, in a dung heap, he found a cow's rope and pieces of hide. Nasir believes his missing cow was slaughtered and its meat sold.

As the news spread, tension rose across the village. At one point the agitated crowd tried to snatch Aziz Mira away from police, and an argument broke out with officers. At around 7am Aziz Mira's cowshed was set on fire, heating up the situation further.

On receiving the news, police from Gournadi Model Thana and the neighbouring Agarpur investigation centre reached the spot and brought the situation under control. After police left, the agitated crowd set fire to Aziz's dwelling house.

Md Shahidul Islam, in-charge of the Sarikal police investigation centre, said preparations are under way to file a case over the incident. Whether the detained men are involved in cattle theft, and whether anyone else is involved, is being investigated.