52 teen gangs: Gang leaders get political patronage

On 22 May this year, miscreants openly hacked to death 14-year-old schoolboy Siyam Khan in Basupara of Lalkuthi in the capital's Darus Salam thana. Earlier, on 10 May, a secondary school examinee Tajul Islam alias Mushfique was killed in front of Dania College, in a 'junior-senior' conflict. Local criminal rings were behind both these killings. These rings are locally known as 'kishore gang' or teen gangs.

These criminal gangs have been created in various areas of the capital with delinquent crime-prone adolescents and teenagers. They are involved in drug dealing, extortion, snatching, harassing women and other offences. While the larger part of these gangs comprise adolescents and young teens, the leaders range from 19 to 38 years in age. These leaders are referred to as 'seniors' or 'boro bhai' (big brothers). Investigations reveal that most of the leaders of these rings are involved with the ruling political party or are under patronage of the local political leaders.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is drawing up a list of the active teen gangs in the capital. So far there are 52 gangs on the list with 682 members in total, in 33 thanas or police station areas under eight crime divisions of DMP. Many of these gang members live in the city slums. But many school and college boys also get influenced by them and join the gangs.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, additional commissioner of DMP (crime and operations) Kh Mahid Uddin, said so far 236 members of these teen criminal gangs have been arrested in 46 cases. He said it required concerted efforts of the families, communities, educational institutions, law enforcement agencies and all concerned to address these criminal propensities. Facilities must be provided so that these young ones, alongside their studies, are also involved in sports and intellectual pursuit.

Among the eight crime divisions of DMP, the highest number of criminal gangs is in Mirpur. The police list says there are 172 active members in 13 teen criminal gangs in this division.

Two of the gangs are in the Lalkuthi locality of Darus Salam thana in Mirpur. They are known as the Atul group and the Potato Rubel group. The Atul group has 20 to 25 members and its leader is Shafiqur Rahman alias Atul.

Local residents say that members of the Atul group often make rounds of the area on their motorbikes from the evening till late night. They beat up people for minor reasons. This group is involved in drug dealing, snatching and extortion in Lalkuthi, Basupara, Ibrahim Nama and Matin Nama areas. Gang leader Shafiqur continues in such crime under the shelter of the local Swechchhashebok League leader Nabil Khan, according to the local people. When several calls were made to Nabil Khan to inquire about these allegations, he did not answer his mobile. He did not reply to any SMS either.

According to the police, there are eight cases against Shafiqur Rahman alias Atul with the Darus Salam and Shah Ali police stations, on charges of murder, snatching and other offences. There are also four general diaries (GD) against him in various police stations.

Shafiqur and his associates are accused in the case of killing college student Md Mahin alias Shubho on 15 September 2020 in Lalkuthi. Shubho has protested their harassing his sister and so they hacked and stabbed him to death in retribution.

Mahin's father Md Babul told Prothom Alo that Shafiqur Rahman has been arrested in the Mahin murder case, but was now out on bail. On 25 May, Shafiqur and his associates came in front of Babul's house, threatening them with knives and cleavers.

Md Babul alleges that Shafiqur and his associates want to kill the witnesses in the Mahin murder case, Akbar Ali and Al Amin. They attacked them on 22 May. Akbar and Al Amin managed to escape, but Imran who was with them at the time, was injured.

Al Amin is a member of another active criminal gang, Potato Rubel group, in the area. They launched a counter attack on that day and a young boy Siyam Khan was killed in the clashes of the two groups. The local people think that Potato Rubel group killed Siyam, thinking he was a member of the rival group.

Md Shantanur Hossain alias Rubel, 28, is the leader of the Potato Rubel group. There are 30 cases against him at the Darus Salam police station, involving murder, narcotics, snatching, extortion and other offences. He is a member secretary of Dhaka city ward no. 10 Jubo Dal. RAB arrested Potato Rubel on 25 May in the Siyam killing case.

According to the police list, the highest number of teen gangs in Mirpur is in Pallabi thana. There are seven gangs there. The top gang there is the Ashiq group. This group has 25 members.

Leader of this gang, Ashiq, is rash and reckless, under the protection of a Pallabi thana Chhatra League leader. Similarly, the Pintu-Kalu group in Mirpur section 11 has the patronage of a leader of Dhaka city North ward no. 5 Awami League and a member of Jubo League, say local sources.

There are five other gangs -- Raju group, Rocky group, Romantic group, Musa-Harun group and Sohel group -- active in various localities of this thana.

There is also the Piyash group in Mirpur model thana area. The name of the leader of this group active in Kalyanpur is Shah Md Kibria alias Piyash, according to the police list. He is the general secretary of Dhaka city ward 11 Jubo League. Police sources say there are several cases against him at the model police station. However, speaking to Prothom Alo over mobile phone, Shah Md Kibria said he had no idea that his name was on the police list as a leader of a teen gang.

When asked about the involvement of certain persons of the ruling party in the teen criminal gangs, Dhaka city North Awami League president Sheikh Bazlur Rahman told Prothom Alo, "If leaders and workers of the mainstream Awami League or its associate organisations get involved in crime, then I would say that the concerned persons must take action accordingly. They should be expelled from the party. Even if they are in the main party, action will be taken against them."

The murder of Adnan Kabir, a Class-VIII student in Uttara in 2017, first brought the vicious brutality of the teen gangs to light. On the evening of 6 January that year, he was beaten and hacked to death at the Uttara sector 13 playground. RAB arrested eight persons, including the leaders of two gangs, in this incident.

According to the DMP list, there are six such gangs in Uttara with 64 members in total. These active criminal rings, known as Young Star, Disco Boys, Big Boss, etc, have rowdy parties, speed around the areas on their motorbikes, noisily blasting their horns, and harassing girls on the streets. They clash with each other over these issues. They are also involved in mugging and various other criminal activities.

According to the DMP Uttara crime division, the Parvez group is active in Turag thana, Rustam group and 9mm Big Boss in Uttarkhan , Big Boss and Young Star group in Dakkhin Khan, and Nine Star group in Uttara West thana.

Police officials say that when the activities of teen groups increase in any area, DMP headquarters issue directives to the field. Even so, incidents take place. Also, teen groups are active in many areas due to political reasons. The police are under pressure to bring this under control.

Head of Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology's department of criminology and police science, professor Muhammad Umar Faruk, speaking to Prothom Alo, said, "Police action is not enough to prevent such crime. This requires social initiative. Police leadership must come forward."

According to him, "If there is no healthy recreation in the society and state, there is all the more fear of young boys and girls being derailed."

* The report has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir