Four teen gangs active in Dhanmondi
Some four teen gangs are now active in the capital’s Dhanmondi area.
One of them is Tousef Group, which is led by the son of a ward councilor affiliated with the ruling Awami League. Another gang is Brotherhood where two rich kids – Orvil Khandkar and Alvi Khandkar – are in leadership.
According to the police, there are two other groups – Lab Sakib and CTN – in the area.
Locals said leaders of the teen gangs mostly belong to influential families, leaving no scope for the police to take actions. Their regular activities include drug consumption as well as drug peddling, hanging out in groups, teasing students, mugging, and so on. Sometimes, they do not hesitate to mug even in broad daylight.
The son of Rafiqul Islam alias Babla, councilor of ward no. 15, leads a gang as the police record mentioned. Asked in this regard, the councilor told Prothom Alo that there is no teen gang in his ward and that his son studies abroad. When this correspondent cited the police record, the councilor asked him to visit his office and show the report
The police said there are frequent incidents of mugging in the Dhanmondi area. Officials at Dhanmondi police station said the muggers come from Mohammadpur, Bosila, and Hazaribagh areas and commit the crimes here. They are muggers in profession and do not belong to any teen gangs.
However, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) mentioned them as members of teen gangs.
Parvez Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Dhanmondi police station, said there are no activities of teen gangs in the Dhanmondi area and therefore there were no drives against them.
A similar scenario was found in Badda, Chawkbazar, Lalbagh, Bonghshal, Wari, and Kamrangirchar areas. Local sources reported criminal activities by teen gangs in the areas, but there are no actions from the law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, some other police officials said they conduct regular drives against teen gangs. Saiful Islam, OC of Kamrangirchar police station, said the conducted a drive on 20 March, but could not arrest anyone.
Prothom Alo published a report on teen gangs in Dhaka on 13 February. Later, three lawmakers discussed the issue in the parliament.
At a programme marking the police week last month, the inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, instructed the field-level officials to keep the teen gangs under control.
Earlier, There were sporadic drives against teen gangs in Dhaka. Following the discussion in the parliament and instruction of the IGP, the drives have been geared up in Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Uttara and some other areas.
The Rapid Action Battalion-2 (RAB) arrested 14 members of teen gangs during operations in Mirpur and Pallabi areas on Sunday and Monday. Earlier, some 36 teen gang members were held from Bosila and Hazaribagh areas in February.
Besides, the DMP’s Detective Branch (DB) held more than 50 members from different areas of the city in the previous month. In separate drives, RAB-1 arrested 37 members of teen gangs from the airport, Banani, Mohakhali, Tongi, and Gazipur areas.
According to the RAB, they arrested some 16 teen gang members in January and 189 in February. Besides, they arrested 349 teens across the country in the previous year.
The DMP list and a Prothom Alo investigation found at least 80 active teen gangs in Dhaka. Despite being teen gangs, the members are mostly aged between 18-40.