Police said the arrested were being transported from Chittagong's Sudharam Police Station to Char Jabbar in a prison van when a 500-strong mob surrounded the van at Herangi Road near Char Jabbar some 30 minutes after midnight.

Eyewitnesses said 12 masked men dragged the blindfolded prisoners out of the vehicle and gouged out the eyes of Naybba Chora and two of his 'commanders' -- Nur Karim and Selim. The condition and whereabouts of Nurul Islam Commander, a fourth bandit arrested along with the three others, could not be known immediately.

Four policemen including a sub-inspector were injured in an ensuing scuffle between police and the mob before police fired blank shots to disperse the angry crowd.

The injured policemen were taken to Char Jabbar Health Centre while the severely injured bandits were admitted to Noakhali General Hospital. Naybba Chora and Nur Karim were referred to Comilla Medical College Hospital yesterday.

Talking to The Daily Star at the hospital, the three injured bandits said police fired only after the attackers were finished with carving their eyes out.

Police said they came to know about Naybba Chora's hideout from his brother Manik, who was arrested Thursday from a house at Dhaka's Jigatala area.

Following Manik's confessional statement, a police team from Char Jabbar Police Station raided an area adjacent to Shital Pahar under Bakulia Police Station and arrested the bandit chief and his three henchmen.

Accused in as many as 42 criminal cases, Naybba Chora established a reign of terror along with other bandit chiefs by unleashing their armed goons on the 4 lakh residents of Noakhali's coastal areas.

For six years, they robbed huge amounts of forest resources including timber, grabbed vast amounts of forest land and extorted money from villagers. In the process, they committed countless acts of murder, rape and kidnap.

On December 6 last year, thousands of villagers joined law-enforcers in a combing operation and routed the bandits, killing 40 of them and gouging out the eyes of some of the 344 arrested robbers. A large amount of arms and ammunition were recovered from them.

Shafi Batannya, another infamous bandit chief, was arrested earlier on December 29 in Chittagong last year. Three other notorious bandit leaders -- Bashar Majhi, Solaiman Commander and Jahangir Majhi -- are still at large.