Pubali Bank officials said they closed the bank on Thursday around 7:00pm and they found the money looted from its vault yesterday morning.

Sources said employees of a tobacco company, which has an office underneath the bank on the first floor, discovered their three security guards unconscious next to a barbed wire fence behind the building. They also noticed that the fence had been cut through.

Later, police discovered that the collapsible gate of the bank on the first floor was cut by a blowtorch and the front door was wide open. They recovered two gas cylinders and a blowtorch from the scene. They arrested the three security guards of the tobacco office -- Habibur Rahman, Abdun Nur and Nur Miah.

Police also arrested the bank's night guard Motiur Rahman Chowdhury who had gone home on Thursday night.

Police claimed the security guards, during interrogation, told them a gang of six to seven armed robbers held them behind the building. The robbers went into the bank leaving one of their gang members to guard the security personnel.

Meanwhile, Officer-in-charge (OC) of Moulvibazar Police Station Amal Kirshna Dhar said Motiur claimed that he had left for home on Thursday after the manager of the bank verbally granted his leave.

The bank manager Abdul Matin, however, denied giving permission to Motiur to leave.

The OC said there is a rule that no bank should have more than Tk 5 lakh in its vault during the weekend and it was not clear why the bank had such amount of money in the vault. He said he would quiz the bank manager today about the matter.