Fatikchhari -- a hottest crime zone

Its hills are small, vegetated with thick forests into which walkways are narrow, and often blinding. The hills are composed of soft clay and can be easily dug for any purpose. The landscape thus could be a paradise on earth, but instead it has become a soft belly for breeding heinous, nefarious, fiendish, hell-born, unconscionable, and unforgivable crimes.

Fatikchhari is now the hottest crime zone. It shelters as many as 20 criminal groups with a sophisticated brand of arms that include AK-47, bazookas, sub-machine guns, mortars and grenades, and crackers and bombs, and guns and pistols, and no roses, I assure you. And they have money, and the assurance of supply of more money, and when they need more money, they simply kidnap - for ransom.

For them abduction for ransom has become the game. Businessman Jamaluddin has by now spent over four weeks in the hands of the abductors with no clue yet to whether he would be released. Various reports confirm that he has been kept in a hidden cave in Fatikchhari, and is probably being passed over from one group to another in the face of a massive hunt by the police. In the process, the prize-money on him has doubled, from Tk. 50 lakh to 1 crore.

The kidnapping groups are thus emboldened, because in the past each of their bids was successful. Many a Chittagonian businessman was kidnapped and, later, released on payment of the ransom, the police apparently having to do nothing. And, in each case the abduction drama was materialised in the hills of Fatikchhari.

Now, a few questions will not be out of place.

If Fatikchhari is that large, and proves to be unmanageable, why does it not get broken into several administrative blocks? Let there be two upazilas: Fatikchhari North and Fatikchhari South, with separate administrative and police paraphernalia.

Let there be a strong contingent of BDR also with a permanent camp. Since, coursing through the hill paths is often done better from air, let there be a heliport at Fatikchhari, from which airborne operation can be conducted. A most sophisticated information cell and security device may be installed at the centre of Fatikchhari, so that movement of the miscreants can be known at once. Plus, a posse of police forces should always be kept at the ready at all focal points to jump on the evildoers.

All the above suggestions should sound very romantic against the backdrop of a crime culture in which the godfathers are all living in the capital city of Dhaka, or in Chittagong, and directing the operations from distance.

So, whatever is done to nab the criminals in Fatikchhari will remain ineffectual if the godfathers are happily living in their city palaces oiling their moustaches.

That is really the point; all operations fail because the big fish are never really caught. It is not for nothing that Shakespeare wrote in King Lear that "Plate sin with gold, / And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks."