Gang culture must be stopped

Aftab Chowdhury

Adnan Kabir, a ninth grade student, was killed by boys of his own age. This happened in Uttara, an upper class area of the capital Dhaka. The murder has caused a stir across the country, because terrible facts came out when people tried to find the reason for it. News came out about the terrible crimes our teenagers are getting involved in under the name of gang culture.

Before this, the police, intelligence agencies, school authorities and even their parents did not know what a terrible culture had grown among these teenagers in the name of gang culture. Gang culture is mainly a bad result of urbanisation. It began in the Western world many years ago. In our country, that kind of culture is also starting along with urbanisation. This gang culture has grown among teenagers in Uttara in the capital.

Victims knew about it, but the teenagers’ families and law enforcement agencies knew nothing about it. Two groups named “Nine Star” and “Disco Boys” were active there and had spread their influence over the area. At first they only held parties, rode motorcycles at high speed with loud horns and teased girls on the roads. In an effort to spread their dominance in the area, they got into conflicts. The latest victim of this was Adnan Kabir, a ninth grade student of Uttara Trust School and College.

The people of the area have been held hostage by them in a way for the past two years. Yet police and guardians have said they knew nothing earlier. Even if guardians and police did not know, a post on Facebook shows how reckless these teenagers are. Before going out to kill Adnan, these teenagers posted photos on Facebook, wearing blue clothes and carrying hockey sticks.

Within a few hours of Adnan’s death, a teenager who was probably a follower of Adnan posted a counter status. It said, “Brother, I will find your killers and slaughter them.” The members of both opposing groups are aged between 14 and 18. So they are still treated as children. All of them are children of upper and middle class families. There are also several other groups in Uttara. Students of the area have to live keeping good relations with one group or another. Otherwise it is hard to live safely in the area.

The question is whether this picture is only of Uttara in the capital. Do we know anything about the news in your area or mine? We look at the tender face of the teenager in our own family, whom you and I still think of as a child, and shower him with love and affection. But do we know what he is like outside the home? Have we, our society and our state been able to build a safe circle for these children and for our families? Are your children and mine really safe?

What happened and is still happening in Uttara is the bad result of gang culture. And events like gang culture happen when a society moves towards change. As I said before, it appeared in the Western world when their urbanisation was happening. Now ours is happening. So events like this will happen now too. A wind of change will blow. For this, our families must take responsibility first.

Whether we call it city life or urban life, it has broken our old family and social customs and bonds. We become city dwellers in the name of raising children, in the name of making ourselves modern, and because we do not like the old house after our financial condition changes. We also leave the old and respected social position in the city and build houses in upper class areas. This has created family separation.

First we separated our own family members. Then we stayed apart from each other in the new area where we came. Now, in flat culture, we do not even know who lives in the next flat. We do not even feel the need to know.

Society will change. The country is getting richer economically. People’s buying power has grown. People’s luxury has also grown. Urbanisation will happen when needed. New settlements will grow, and with them we will face some new troubles. We must also find ways to overcome them. Some changes will happen and we must accept them. We cannot force back the social reality of 50, 60 or 100 years ago.

Need, that is time, will change you. To move with time, you must also change. Suppose some areas of a city stay under water in the rainy season. Will an old resident of those areas, who can afford it, agree to stay there only in the name of social ties? Or will he build a new house or buy a flat in a better place in the city? In the same way, will a well off person in a village agree to live in the village if he has money, giving up so many comforts of the city?

We cannot ignore either. Just as we need social bonds, we cannot deny the reality of being separated from each other. In earlier times our families were large. It was common for fathers and uncles to live together in the same house. There was a bond of affection in society. There were some social customs that everyone had to follow. There was a system of village chiefs in society. There was a social justice system. Everyone had to accept social justice.

So everyone in a neighbourhood grew up within a social bond and discipline. Parents also had to answer for any mistake or crime of their child. In some areas this social justice or custom was very strict. Nobody dared to speak against the decision of the neighbourhood chief. But it was not always good for everyone. By misusing this chance, chiefs or influential people in society also oppressed and suppressed the poor and helpless. Many stories of this have come up in our stories, plays, novels and films.

Everything has both a good and a bad side. So there is no reason to look down on the present just because the old days were very good. In the same way, we do not have to accept everything about modernity or the present. This is a picture of the present social reality, and it is not new. Such grouping existed in our society before too. There was fighting and thuggery. There were “big brothers” in every neighbourhood.

This situation lasted in our society from the Pakistan period, after independence, until the nineties of the last century. There were many people in many areas of Sylhet city who were mainly thugs. Many of them have died today and many have grown old. Considering them and their present families, I have not named them. This tendency grew very much just after independence. There were many fights in neighbourhoods and even many murders and killings at that time.

So just saying harsh words, like the country has reached the peak of hell and law and order has gone terribly bad after the Uttara incident, will not solve all problems. It is also not possible to control everything with law and law enforcement agencies. Parents must perform the main duty at the family level. They must keep an eye on their children. They must know about their good and bad. They must build a happy world for them.

They must awaken humanity in the child. They must widen the field of entertainment and joy for the child. They must awaken cultural values. They must build a path for the child’s mental growth. They must open the way to gain human qualities. Drugs and weapons have become easier to get now than at any time before.

The Uttara incident is not new, and it is also not an isolated incident. We can instead call it a terrible reality of society. It is a reaction to the dishonesty, inhumanity and cruelty practised in society. After the Second World War, various social evils appeared in the Western world, including Europe. Today they have disappeared. We too must try to make them disappear.

We must not forget that teenagers of this age also played a bright role in the long freedom struggle of this subcontinent and of Bangladesh. Shaheed Matiur, a martyr of the mass uprising of 1969, was also a teenager. When he was martyred, he was a ninth grade student of Nabakumar Institution. Many teenagers took part in our glorious great Liberation War, which is our pride.

So I said we must plant dreams in the hearts of these growing children. We parents must show them the right path. It is we who must take the responsibility of protecting them from all evil and from all bad and indecent things.

The writer is a journalist and columnist.