Old gangs remain active, drawing in youth from affluent families

Assistant Revenue Officer Bullet Bairagi was returning to Cumilla on the night of 24 April after completing training in Chattogram. On the way, he boarded a CNG-run auto-rickshaw.

According to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), robbers had disguised themselves as the driver and a passenger. After assaulting him and taking his mobile phone, money and bag, they threw him from the moving auto-rickshaw.

The following morning, authorities recovered his body beside the highway near the Irish Hill Hotel in Kotbari.

Police had arrested one of the accused in the murder from the railway line area nearly two months earlier. He was later released on bail.

A source at the Special Response Battalion (SRB), which replaced RAB, said the person belonged to a robbery gang known locally as a teenage gang.

Cumilla has seen several other cases in which people were arrested earlier, released on bail and later accused of committing new crimes.

Prothom Alo reviewed information on 32 incidents and operations involving teen gang activities and related organised crimes. The names of old gangs repeatedly appeared in clashes, displays of weapons and attacks.

A recently released video showed the leader of the Ratan Group staging a show of force in front of the police superintendent’s office. Meanwhile, some families are struggling after their children became involved with teenage gangs.

From 7 March 2023 to 23 September this year, the published figures for those detained and arrested in these incidents and operations total 881. We also reviewed earlier information to understand the previous activities of several individuals.

The review found that the same areas and gang names repeatedly appeared, while old accused individuals faced allegations of involvement in new crimes.

Nilima Bairagi, the mother of Assistant Revenue Officer Bullet Bairagi, filed a case with Sadar South model police station over his murder. RAB arrested five people.

According to the SRB source, one of them had been arrested in an earlier case, released and later became involved in crime again.

On 3 June 2025, police arrested Rakibul Hasan Riad, Sohag Molla and Khairul Hasan on allegations of preparing to commit robbery in the Tomsom Bridge area.

According to police, Riad and Sohag had been released on bail that evening, while Khairul had secured bail about a month earlier.

Nayan Hossain, also known as Nayan Bond, was a prominent figure in teenage gang activities in Cumilla city.

In December 2022, he faced seven cases at Kotwali and Sadar South model police stations. He was in prison at the time. Four people arrested from the BSCIC industrial area with weapons, crude bombs and drugs were his associates, according to the information available then.

On the night of 3 December 2024, a group called Sajib Hossain, also known as Babu, out of his home in the Ashoktala railway crossing area, assaulted and stabbed him. He died in hospital the following day.

Nayan, Chayan and their associates were named in the case. Police said a dispute linked to teenage gangs and drug trafficking lay behind the incident.

Local residents said Nayan is now in the area. A local source claimed that he still leads the gang. An inquiry also found that Point Rabbi, who was arrested in 2023, is currently in the area.

Police sources said Imran Hossain, also known as Ratan, the leader of the Ratan Group who was arrested in April 2025, is currently out on bail. Several videos of him were posted on social media on Wednesday.

The videos showed a group including Ratan staging a show of force in front of the district police superintendent’s office. Md Mohsin, vice-president of Cumilla Metropolitan Chhatra Dal, was leading the group.

Mohsin told Prothom Alo that Chhatra Dal was responsible for maintaining discipline at an event organised by the Jubo Dal. He said he was going there with his followers and that many people were part of the procession.

He said he did not know how members of teen gangs had joined them. He said, “We have no involvement with teen gangs.”

Md Nahiduzzaman Rana, president of Cumilla City Chhatra Dal, told Prothom Alo that they had always been campaigning against teenage gangs and drugs. He said he contacted the vice-president after watching the video.

According to Rana, the vice-president said he had not known about the involvement of teenage gang members. He added that they were still investigating the matter and would take organisational action if they found any involvement.

On the afternoon of 18 September, 13-year-old schoolboy Ishayat Shahriar Apratim was taken to a secluded forest in the Sananda area of Lalmai Hills and killed.

Local residents said the two teenagers, including arrested suspect Saiful Islam Tuhin, were members of a gang called RZ-36. Local sources also said Tuhin had recently been trying to form his own gang in the Kotbari and university areas.

Several sources involved in the investigation said the two teenagers had been involved in various incidents, including staging motorcycle rallies to create fear.

Police said the suspects took Apratim to the secluded area to snatch his iPhone. They also allegedly lured him with the promise of making a TikTok video.

A review of 32 incidents identified 12 teenage gangs and sub-groups: Ratan or R Squad, Eagle, CBK, CBK Danger Zone, CBK Junior, CBK Special, RDX, RZ-36, CDX, King Squad, Red 999 and BGM. If CBK and its three aforementioned sub-groups are treated as one network, the number of gangs comes to nine. Information from various incidents also linked gangs led by Point Rabbi, Tajul Islam Suman and Nayan Bond.

The names Ratan and Eagle emerged in connection with a clash in February 2024 and a rally in January 2025. In April that year, various groups also staged shows of strength while carrying weapons.

Following rallies on 25 April at the banks of Rani’s Dighi, Talpukurpaar and Adalatpara, police initially arrested five people and later arrested nine more. A further nine people were arrested in a joint operation by the army and RAB. The total number of arrests was 23.

In October of the same year, following a clash at Victoria College, police arrested 16 people while the then-RAB arrested eight.

The two incidents resulted in 47 arrests. In both cases, public violence or weapons displays preceded the major operations.

In August 2025, when police detained 21 members of King Squad from the KTC field in the Housing area, they said the group had announced the rally on social media and was preparing to stage it.

In the same month, police detained 27 members of RDX and CDX for allegedly preparing to stage a rally.

Despite the word “teenage” in their names, not all members of the groups are minors. The published ages of the nine people detained during a joint operation in April 2025 ranged from 19 to 47. RAB had identified one of them as a weapons supplier.

The review covered five murder cases: Apritim, Bullet, Hridoy, Badhan and Sajib, also known as Babu. In the Hridoy murder in Chauddagram, local residents gave a different account of the motive for the dispute from the findings of the police’s preliminary investigation.

Local residents described Badhan, a dismissed police constable who was killed in Daudkandi on 23 April 2023, as a gang leader. Information later showed that police arrested three people in the case.

People have also fallen victim to attacks despite having no involvement in the disputes. Members of a teenage gang attacked police officer Kazi Abdullah Md Zubayer at the banks of Dharmasagar after he protested against indecent remarks about his wife.

Schoolboy Ethan Ahmed was shot amid a dispute between two drug-related groups in Katabil. Police said they arrested four people and recovered a pistol and ammunition.

A common perception is that teenage gangs generally involve children from poor families and those living in slums. Although Cumilla has seen cases involving children from such families, gang activities are not confined to them.

Information shows that children from socially established families, including those of government employees, have also come into contact with and become involved in such groups.

A government official working in land administration in Debidwar had to send his child to a rehabilitation centre after the child became involved with a gang and developed a drug addiction.

The official said the child’s behaviour had caused the family to face social humiliation. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “My child has become involved with these teenage gang groups, become addicted to drugs and is heading towards destruction. I feel completely helpless.”

In his view, criminal activities similar to those of teenage gangs have now spread to rural areas as well.

On 20 May in Debidwar, the two gangs known as “Red 999” and “BGM” allegedly engaged in a public display of weapons and attacks amid a dispute between them.

Police detained 20 people and released 12 after verification and questioning. They showed eight as arrested in the case and produced them before a court the following day. The investigation found information linking the official’s child to these groups.

A law enforcement source said officers recently contacted the parents of several people they detained after finding them travelling together on motorcycles.

The parents included people from locally known families, including one lawyer. Most of them could not say where their children were. One father said, “I do not know where my son is; his mother may know.”

Major Sadman Ibne Alam, deputy director and company commander of SRB-11 CPC-2, Cumilla, told Prothom Alo that law enforcement agencies had arrested many gang members through a series of operations.

However, he said families have the most important role in preventing juvenile crime. If parents remain attentive and keep track of where their children are and whom they associate with, he said, resolving the problem becomes easier.

On 23 September, police conducted simultaneous operations across the district’s 18 police stations and detained 624 people.

By the following day, authorities had released 451 of them into their parents’ custody after taking written undertakings, while sending 173 to court. In other words, nearly 72 per cent were released on such undertakings.

Police also released 39 people detained in the city in May 2024 into their parents’ custody after obtaining written undertakings. In Debidwar, 12 people were released in the same way on May.

The three operations resulted in the release of a total of 502 people. Police said they conducted the operations after identifying locations where teenage gangs were active.

They took action against some individuals after checking records of previous offences, while handing others over to their parents’ custody.

Major Sadman Ibne Alam, deputy director and company commander of SRB-11 CPC-2, Cumilla, told Prothom Alo that law enforcement agencies had arrested many gang members through a series of operations.

However, he said families have the most important role in preventing juvenile crime. If parents remain attentive and keep track of where their children are and whom they associate with, he said, resolving the problem becomes easier.

On 23 September, police conducted simultaneous operations across the district’s 18 police stations and detained 624 people.

By the following day, authorities had released 451 of them into their parents’ custody after taking written undertakings, while sending 173 to court. In other words, nearly 72 per cent were released on such undertakings.

Police also released 39 people detained in the city in May 2024 into their parents’ custody after obtaining written undertakings.

In Debidwar, 12 people were released in the same way on May. The three operations resulted in the release of a total of 502 people.

Police said they conducted the operations after identifying locations where teenage gangs were active. They took action against some individuals after checking records of previous offences, while handing others over to their parents’ custody.

Professor Nikhil Chandra Roy, president of the Cumilla branch of the Sachetan Nagarik Committee (Sonak), said inadequate parental care increases the risk of children becoming involved in gangs. He said these children may later become involved in more serious crimes.

Parents need to monitor where their children are going, whom they spend long periods of time with outside the home, why they do not return even after evening, and what they do on social media. In his view, this lack of supervision is also drawing children from educated families into crime. He said families have the most important role, alongside law enforcement agencies, in addressing the problem.