Concern as professional criminals on the prowl
Demanding ransom and openly hacking people for extortion, compounded with the scare of snatching, have increased fear of people. In recent times, businessmen in different areas have received threats. Police find involvement of professional criminals in these incidents.
On Friday night, some 8-10 miscreants hacked businessman Ehteshamul Haque with machetes in front of Multiplan Center in Elephant Road in Dhaka. Law enforcers found the connection of ‘Emon Group’ with the incident.
Several sources from Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said most of the people involved with crimes on the rise after 5 August such as abduction, extortion, snatching and dacoity are members of professional crime gangs. Not only in the city, professional criminals have become active in other parts of the country too. The rise of professional and top criminals has been discussed in meetings of top officials of law enforcers. The home ministry on 26 December in 2001 published a list of 23 top criminals. Many of them have now become active again.
DMP sources said activities of top criminals have increased in Dhanmondi, Elephant Road, New Market, Nilkhet, Hazaribagh, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Pallabi, Kafrul, Motijheel, Badda and Mohakhali areas. The names of Sanjidul Islam alias Captain Emon, Imamul Hasan Helal alias Picchi Helal, Abbas Ali alias Killer Abbas and Subrata Bain are coming up. All of them sans Emon were on the list of top criminals in 2001. Although Emon's name is not on the list, Emon has been one of the most talked about names in Dhaka's crime world for two decades.
The relevant sources said that after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August in the student-people mass uprising, top terrorists Picchi Helal and Emon were released on bail. Apart from these two, at least four top terrorists have been released from prison on bail in the recent past. In the last four months, Picchi Helal and Emon have been named in several cases of crimes including murder, encroachment and extortion. Last October, an attempt was made to seize the shops of five businessmen in Nilkhet in the capital. Two of them said that some people who introduced themselves as men of 'Captain Emon' threatened them to close their businesses. At one stage, they demanded 'toll'. They forced a shop to close for a few days after not receiving the extortion money. Later, they contacted some students of Dhaka University. The students later asked the police to look into the matter. After that, when the police took the initiative, the extortionists did not come again.
Several businessmen of Hazaribagh were allegedly tortured for extortion by Emon’s men. One of them told Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity that he had to pay Tk 1 million as extortion but could not file any case out of fear.
President of a Hazaribagh-based business body told Prothom Alo that he heard five incidents where Emon’s men picked up businessmen to forcibly extract money ranging between Tk 500,000 to Tk 3 million. The victim businessmen are too scared to disclose their identities.
Several sources of law enforcers said work is on to determine how these criminals who came out of jail on bail can be brought to justice. Moreover, intelligence agencies are collecting information on the incidents where the victims could not lodge a complaint out of fear.
On 2 January, miscreants blast crude bombs in front of a readymade garment factory at Milk Vita intersection in Mirpur’s Rupnagar to create terror centering a collecting extortion.
Police sources say that professional criminals are now active outside the capital as well. On the evening of 11 January, physician Aminur Rahman was abducted from the Maona area of Sreepur in Gazipur. The next morning, the kidnappers released him somewhere between Hotapara and Rajendrapur in Gazipur. The kidnappers took Tk 130,000 from him.
Several high-profile kidnapping incidents have occurred recently. There have also been kidnappings and ransom demands in Habiganj and Mymensingh.
From 5 August last year to 12 January this year, 135 kidnappers were arrested in RAB operations alone. During the same period, RAB rescued 196 kidnapped people.
On the other hand, according to the police headquarters, 329 cases were filed in the country for kidnappings alone from August to December. Out of these, 74 kidnapping cases were filed in December.
In addition to extortion, people are increasingly concerned about the number of robberies in Dhaka. RAB has recently identified 279 ‘spot’ of robbery in the capital and vicinity. The elite force has determined these spots by analyzing the trend of robbery.
RAB’s legal and media wing director lieutenant colonel Md Munim Ferdous said that the directive at all levels of RAB has been given to prevent snatching, kidnap, extortion, theft and robbery.
Police still struggling
Sources said as many as 5749 arms were either looted or lost during the July-August movement. Of these, over 4000 arms were recovered till December. In Dhaka 1898 arms were looted in Dhaka and around 1500 have been recovered.
The police force is still bearing the brunt of the July Movement as it faces many challenges in running routine activities. As many buildings of the police were damaged, activities run in nearby government offices or rented buildings. Patrolling and checking activities of police are on the wane due to lack of equipment and vehicles.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) additional commissioner (crime and operations) SN Md Nazrul Islam said the drive is ongoing against all criminals and extortionists. Eight top level officials of police told Prothom Alo that routine activities of the force are being hampered due to absence of expected work environment. Additionally, special attention has to be paid to prevent crimes such as theft, robbery and snatching and special drives are being conducted to arrest the accused in cases related to July movement. Also police are to do duty in tackling regular street protests.
He said that doing all this has put the policemen under pressure.
Besides, the morale of the force could not be fully restored.
As a result police are failing to play their due role in tackling crimes, he added.
Dhaka University’s social welfare and research institute’s associate professor Touhidul Haque said professional criminals have become active taking chances of police’s inactivity. It has become a crying need that police become fully active, he added.