Around 9:30pm on Thursday, Farmview Supermarket shop worker Moshiul Alam looked at his wristwatch and decided to close up shop for the day. He set off for the Farmgate overbridge as he made his way home to the capital’s Nakhalpara neighbourhood.
As he began to cross the pedestrian overbridge, the silhouettes of two people caught his eye – sitting in the middle of the bridge, they seemed intent on some action he could not quite make out.
Walking closer, Moshiul realised that they were injecting each other with drugs. Sensing trouble, he quietly turned the other way and made a run for it.
He later told the Dhaka Tribune that he was lucky he had managed to avoid getting robbed or attacked by the drug abusers on the bridge.
Foot overbridges across the capital have become dangerous places for commuters.
Overbridges look like bustling elevated hawkers’ markets during daylight hours, but become increasingly menacing places as the sunlight fades.
Adil Rahman, a Farmgate hawker, says the overbridges are not just drug dens, they frequently double as public toilets littered with human refuse.
There are 34 foot overbridges under the jurisdiction of Dhaka North City Corporation and 28 under Dhaka South City Corporation, sources said.
Additionally, there are a number of others under the jurisdiction of the Road and Transport Department.
Despite police efforts to get Dhaka residents to use the overbridges, pedestrians frequently choose to take their chances skipping through oncoming traffic on the roads below.
Asked, Khan Mohammad Rezowan, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic division, told the Dhaka Tribune that his section was in charge of drives to punish jaywalkers and encourage bridge use.
But he said criminal activities taking place on overbridges were the DMP crime control division’s responsibility.
When contacted, Masudur Rahman, the DMP deputy commissioner for media and publication, said despite police patrolling efforts, criminals were taking advantage of the secluded and ill-lit spaces.
The clutter of hawkers on the overbridges make them less attractive to pedestrians in a rush.
Bashori Jannat, a Khilkhet resident, said she never uses overbridges because of the hawkers’ crowds and clutter by day and the catcalls and bad behaviour of petty criminals by night.
When asked, DNCC Chief Executive Officer BM Enamul Haque said it was not possible that hawkers were peddling their wares on foot overbridges because a drive against them had recently been conducted.
He promised to look into it.
A nearly identical statement was made by Ansar Ali Khan, the chief executive officer of DSCC.