Just like the previous years, notorious “ogyan parties” have started becoming active in the capital city with Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival in the country, up ahead.
These gangs of muggers got the name because they make people unconscious with sedatives at public places or crowded transports and take away all their belongings. Ogyan in Bangla means unconscious and party is used to denote gangs.
This past week – the last before the month of Ramadan starts – there has already been a mini spike in the number of victims; at least that is what the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) patient register suggests.
In the week ending today, at least seven people got admitted to the DMCH. Even in the preceding few weeks, the average number of victims of this crime was less than three.
Last year, as many as 450 people, all ogyan party victims, took treatment at the DMCH during the month of Ramadan. Two of them died there later.
One of the deceased was a college student named Md Shohagh, 19, who came to visit his brother’s house in the capital’s Golapbagh area during Ramadan.
According to the police’s Detective Branch (DB), these gangs wait throughout the year to prey on people who come to the capital city to make a few extra bucks in the Ramadan surge in economic activities. These muggers are mainly active in and around the train, bus and launch terminals through which the seasonal migration influx takes place.
They operate in teams of four to five. They target a prey, mostly people who live outside Dhaka, one of the members get friendly with him or her, offers strong sedative-mixed food and mugs all belongings when the victim falls unconscious. One or two members of an ogyan party remain on standby to tackle any untoward situations that may arise.
DB says that at present at least 10 such mugging gangs – each comprising 25-30 members – are active in the capital city and they have all bolstered their activities as Eid approaches.
Police say they can take action against only a handful of these gangs as most cases of mugging remain unreported.
The two deaths reported last year is unusual but health professionals say that an attack may come with long-term physical consequences.
Prof Billal Hossain of the DMCH medicine unit said: “By studying victims, we have seen that heavy dosage of sedative affects kidney and liver. If someone feels unwell after falling victim to an ogyan party, they should immediately go to a nearby hospital instead of wasting time in the streets.”
When contacted, AKM Shahidul Haque, inspector general of police (IGP), told the Dhaka Tribune: “Drives are on and we have already arrested several members of these mugger gangs. But the consciousness must come from people. They should not eat anything given by strangers and stay alert at crowded places.”
On Wednesday night, detectives nabbed 21 members of an ogyan party at different places in the city and seized a large amount of sedative tablets from their possession, including Dormicum, Milam, and Ativan.
A mobile court of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) jailed the muggers for different prison terms raging from six months to two years, said DB Deputy Commissioner Sajjadur Rahman.
While talking to media yesterday, he also said that these muggers had been picked up from the capital’s Shahbagh, Narayanganj-Jatrabari road, Dhaka University and the High Court areas.
Sajjadur told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have seen in the past that these muggers come out and dope people again after securing bail from courts. This year, we have deployed mobile courts to give them punishment immediately so that they cannot come out and commit the same crime again.”
When contacted, Abdul Mazid, OC of Government Railway Police, told the Dhaka Tribune that at least 250 of their personnel will operate in uniforms and plainclothes at the train stations to stop the ogyan parties.