Nationwide Anxiety Over Security Concerns
Sakhawat Hossain and Hasan-uz Zaman
Police officer Altaf Hossain was beaten to death in public in Aminbazar, Savar, near Dhaka, on Saturday night. At the same time, miscreants shot a businessman named Aslam Khan inside his business establishment in Shanir Akhra in the capital. His condition is critical. Earlier, the body of a man named Ismail Hossain with scotch tape on his face was recovered from the Banani section of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, and a headmistress tragically died after falling from an auto rickshaw in front of the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. The common people of the country do not feel safe on busy roads, important establishments or residential areas – even in their own homes.
Bank robberies in broad daylight, shootings in public, armed exercises, bomb disposal or abandoned bodies – recent brutal incidents have raised concerns about citizen safety across the country. At the same time, various crimes including target killings, theft, rape, cybercrime, fights, juvenile gangs and extortion have become a daily occurrence. Home Ministry officials are failing to provide proper guidance to field-level police, RAB and other agency officials to bring criminals to justice.
Crime and social experts say that lack of coordination between the Ministry of Home Affairs, Police Headquarters and field administration is a major reason for the deterioration of law and order. Due to lack of proper monitoring, criminals are going undetected after the crime is committed. At the same time, the police chain of command is not in place, so the orders of senior officers are not being implemented. Professional criminals have become reckless as the police or field-level intelligence officers are inactive in bringing criminals under the law to control crime. As a result, the law and order situation in the country has deteriorated and crime has increased, creating severe insecurity and anxiety among the common people.
Mohammad Golam Sarwar, assistant professor of the Law Department of Dhaka University, told Inqilab , “Law and order did not deteriorate suddenly. There has been no overall improvement in law and order after the mass movement. The morale of the police has been broken. The Ministry of Home Affairs is failing to meet this. Crimes are constantly happening in the country. We need to check whether criminals are getting away with it. When criminals see that they are getting away with committing crimes, new ones are also encouraged to get involved in crime. In addition, there is social and economic instability. Due to unemployment and lack of employment, youth are getting involved in various crimes, including drug addiction.”
In this regard, sociologist Dr. Mahmudul Haque said, one of the main reasons for the increase in crime is social unrest, poverty, lack of education and employment. When people in society have no security for the future, they may turn to crime. However, crime can be controlled through proper law enforcement, education and awareness raising.
According to law enforcement sources, miscreants entered a shop called ‘Lucky Cookery’ in front of Shanir Akhra Royal Hospital at 8:20 pm on Saturday and shot businessman Aslam Khan. His friend Monowar Hossain, who rescued the injured Aslam Khan and brought him to the hospital, described the incident and said, “We were talking inside the shop. Suddenly, an unknown young man entered the shop and before he could understand anything, he raised a pistol and opened fire on Aslam. Within moments, Aslam fell to the floor after being shot. To save Aslam, we quickly took him to the local hospital and then to the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College around 9 pm. He is currently undergoing treatment. He further said that the miscreant’s bullet hit Aslam below the knee of his left leg and on the right side of his forehead. In this incident, the local people arrested the miscreant Manjurul and handed him over to the police. After this incident, panic prevailed among businessmen and common people in the entire Old Dhaka.
On September 4, the police recovered the body of a man named Ismail Hossain with scotch tape on his face from the Banani section of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The incident of dumping a body in a sensitive area covered by the latest technology and CCTV cameras has created concern among the public. On August 30, the headmistress of Bagbari Girls Government Primary School in Gabtoli Upazila of Bogra fell to her death from an auto rickshaw after a robber pulled her bag in front of the South Plaza of the National Parliament Building. The teacher, named Ranjina Parveen (55), had come to Dhaka to see a doctor at the Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital in the capital’s Farmgate area. The police arrested two people in the incident. The police claim that the motorcycle used in the robbery has also been recovered. However, many questions have arisen about the color of the motorcycle that was recovered. On August 29, the miscreants stabbed the target person during a robbery in the area of the broken bridge in Kadamtoli, Dhaka. But as soon as the victim tried to move, the other robber stabbed him with a knife. The robber died on the spot. On August 9, a robbery of more than 1.21 crore taka took place from the business establishment of the Prime Minister’s cousin in Uttara. Although RAB and police arrested some people in that incident, the entire amount of money has not been recovered yet. A few days after that incident, miscreants robbed a businessman’s establishment of 2 lakh 1 thousand taka at gunpoint in front of Delicious Coffee Shop on Sonargaon Janpath Road in Uttara Sector 11. Two incidents of large sums of money being stolen in the same area within a short period of time have raised concerns about security among businessmen and the general public. Recently, police arrested three people with weapons on charges of snatching a bag of money while withdrawing 3.9 million taka from a bank in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
On June 25, Shahinur Begum (38) and her three daughters Saima Akhter (21), Iqra Begum (17), and Sipa Akhter (9) were hacked to death in a rented house in Dhanhata area of Raipur municipality in Lakshmipur. Sifat is now the only member of the family. Police said that the accused Antar Majumdar (30) was detained and beaten up by locals in this incident. Later, he was rescued and taken to the hospital, where the doctor declared him dead. On August 22, the police recovered the bodies of a retired school teacher, his wife, daughter, and son from a locked house in Rangpur city. They lived on the second floor of the building. This led to widespread criticism across the country. On September 3, terrorists shot dead a young man named Mohammad Karim in Keranihat area of Urkirchar union in the upazila of Raozan in Chittagong. The deceased Karim is a resident of Harpara village in Ward No. 8 of Urkirchar union.
On June 13, at around 1:30 pm, Rauzan and Rangunia Upazila Jubo Dal senior joint convener Maksudul Haque Chowdhury Masud (45) was shot dead in front of thousands of people at Pahartali Chaumuhani Bazar in Rauzan Upazila. Armed miscreants came in a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw or in public and opened fire on him, killing him on the spot. On August 12, businessman Abdus Sattar (90), his wife Suraiya Begum (76) and housemaid Tahmina (20) were murdered at their home in Raynagar Mitali residential area of Sylhet city. On August 20, an unidentified young woman was rescued from a river in Batiaghata, Khulna, and on the same night, a student was rescued from a school bathroom in Dighlia Upazila, about five hours after school was over, with her hands, feet and face tied. The incident took place at Haji Naeem Uddin Secondary School in Gazirhat of the upazila. The rescued student was a ninth-grade student at that school.
At a function in Dhaka on Saturday, IGP Md. Ali Hossain Fakir told reporters that many criminals have been brought under the law several times in the drive against drugs and robbery. But due to various limitations of the law, it is not possible to detain them for a long time. Later, they get involved in the same crime again. AIG (Media) of the Police Headquarters AHM Shahadat Hossain said that overall the law and order situation is under control. Where crimes are being committed, criminals are being arrested by conducting quick drives. Regular drives are also continuing. In light of the government’s zero tolerance policy, no concessions are being given to criminals.
