Rein in mugging gangs

A recent report by this daily paints a frustrating picture of continued mugging and extortion instances in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur and Adabor areas, leaving the residents and business owners in these neighbourhoods in a constant state of fear. What’s worse is that these attacks don’t just occur at night but even in broad daylight, as though the criminals have no care for the repercussions of their actions, pointing to a systemic failure to curb this menace for years.

In one reported incident, a 10th-grader was severely injured on Sunday night after muggers hacked at his legs with sharp weapons in Mohammadpur’s Nabinagar Housing area. Earlier, on Friday night, muggers knifed a member of the Special Protection Battalion (SPBn) of police inside the Rayerbazar Intellectuals’ Graveyard. And as per a report in this daily, on Saturday night, a group of miscreants allegedly attacked the employees of an embroidery factory in Adabor, shortly after they were paid their monthly wages. The incident left at least two individuals wounded. Several CCTV videos have also been circulating, which show how extortionists and gangs attack pedestrians and commuters during the day.

Police have taken action and made arrests in some of these cases, but those actions have not been effective enough to stop the crimes. In fact, several initiatives were undertaken in the past to deal with this issue, but they rarely produced a permanent solution. It is clearly affecting the quality of the residents’ lives, so much so that they have staged demonstrations on several occasions demanding respite from these criminals.

The police chief recently asked field-level officers to take strict measures against criminals. The newly elected Dhaka-13 MP also said surveillance of the area would be beefed up with increased patrolling and the installation of 550 CCTV cameras and 20 police boxes. These are promising initiatives. Given the historical vulnerability of Mohammadpur and adjacent areas to mugging and other petty crimes, authorities need to be pragmatic in their approach. The priority should be dismantling all local gangs and extortion rings. The local police must be equipped with adequate resources right away so that they can do their job effectively. Now that we have an elected government in place, it is up to them to prioritise the safety of residents in areas such as Mohammadpur and Adabor where violence and crime fester in every corner.