Bangladesh News

A rickshaw ride from Gabtali to Shahbagh gave a private-university teacher the taste of life in Dhaka out at night. He ran into three marauding gangs of muggers in all of 40 minutes from 4:00am Monday.

In every case, he said youths in white cars seemingly from well-off families waylaid him on his way back home.

“The first gang stopped my rickshaw at Kalyanpur, snatched my two cellphones and the wallet containing several hundred taka,” he said preferring anonymity.

He managed to escape the second gang as he asked the rickshaw-puller to turn back quickly after being intercepted in front of Bashundhara City shopping mall at Panthapath.

The escape was, however, shot-lived. A few hundred yards away, a third gang stopped him at gunpoint, making off with the wristwatch that the first youths did not notice to snatch.

He said he saw patrol teams of law enforcement agencies not far from every place of incident, but nobody seemed to notice it.

The story speaks volume of how rampant muggings have become in the city, making going out at night a risky business.

A Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) statistics say 513 mugging cases were filed across the city in the six months from January this year. Ninety-five cases were filed in June, 60 in May, 100 in April, 89 in March, 83 in February and 86 cases in January.

Five hundred and forty-eight people were arrested during the same period in this connection.

Mugging incidents, in reality, are way higher than the DMP statistics say as most of the victims do not report it to the police while many others just register general diaries only stating that they lost their valuables in order to ward off legal hassles.

On Sunday police officials discussed the rise in muggings in a four-hour meeting, chaired by DMP Commissioner Naim Ahmed. It entrusted experienced officers with pinpointing the most vulnerable spots and working out a plan for a massive drive to curb the crimes.

The police have already identified around 200 mugger-friendly spots, with Ramna and Jatrabari areas being most susceptible to the crime.

Sources said more than 1,500 uniformed and plainclothes police, drawn from city police stations, Detective Branch (DB), Rajarbagh-based Public Order Management and Special Armed Force, would take part in the operation.

The law enforcers also classified muggers into two groups: professionals and drug addicts. Professional snatchers fall into yet two categories, one using firearms and the other using sedatives to make their victims unconscious or ointment to render them temporarily blind.

The DMP commissioner yesterday acknowledged that muggings have become a major problem. He told reporters that around 100 muggers belonging to more than 20 gangs are stalking the city streets, adding that police have already arrested all members of about 20 such gangs.

He said muggers are most active from 4:00am to 6:00am, 9:00am to 1:00pm and after 11:00pm when they use motorcycles, cars or taxis and CNG-run three-wheelers for the crimes.

The law enforcers have prepared a list of muggers and their possible hideouts, he said adding that the DMP would issue an order which would require taxicab and three-wheeler drivers to put their photo and identity documents on display at a place where passengers could easily view them.