At least eight people including two policemen were injured seriously in the nearly two-hour gun battle between with the robbers. The other injured are shop owners and employees, chopped or beaten by the dacoits.

The robbers, split into two groups and equipped with firearms, bombs, and other lethal weapons, looted 10 shops, five jewellery, and fled with about Tk 50 lakh in cash and valuables including 150 tola of gold.

Police forces of the adjacent Barguna, Jhalakati, Patuakhali and Pirojpur districts have been put on red alert for a combing operation anytime to nab the criminals, sources at the office of the deputy inspector general of police (DIG), Barisal Range, said.

Witnesses and police said the gang armed with sub-machineguns, light machine guns and other modern firearms, came in a river transport, cordoned the police outpost and attacked the business centre at about 1:15am.

The robbers opened fire and threw bombs at the outpost and attempted to loot arms from there. But 13 police personnel including a sub-inspector defended the outpost. But they failed to break the robbers' cordon and prevent looting.

The gun battle continued till about 3:15am and police constables Sher Ali and Hazrat Ali were injured in bomb blasts by the gang. They were hospitalised.

DIG Golam Mustafa and top officials of the district police with special forces rushed to the spot in the early morning.

Sources pointed out the incident at Neamoti Banda was similar to the July 27 Bhandaria Bandar looting and police outpost attack in Pirojpur.

The DIG had also rushed to that place but the police probe into the incident has made no headway till now.