It was around 10am yesterday when three minor street children had been staging a small play inside the Suhrawardi Udyan: a girl having an old vanity bag was walking on a street; another boy suddenly came in front of the girl and fell down; and the third one, another boy who was passing by, simply took away a mobile phone from the vanity bag.
However, a young man who was standing beside the spot slapped the first boy, and asked him to be more natural while acting.
In an investigation, it was learned that it was not a play but a trained effort on how to steal mobile phones from people. The man, who was giving training to these street children, was identified as Sahidul, a notorious mobile thief.
There are several groups that had been training the street children to steal mobile phones, and they allegedly torture the children if anyone refuses to do such work.
Such sensational information was first flashed after the arrest of three children from Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) last Tuesday.
The detained kids told the Dhaka Tribune that they had been learning pick pocketing from one Ibrahim, 18, a resident of Chankharpool, for the last couple of months. They got caught by the police on the first day of their “real work.” Their boss Ibrahim was standing nearby to instruct them, but he left soon after the hospital police caught them.
One of the detained boys said he used to sell chocolate and sleep at Sohrawardi Uddyan. Once, Ibrahim came to him and forced him to do such work. When he refused to do so, Ibrahim beat him up.
When asked, he said he had taken training with 25 other kids and all of them were of similar ages. The masterminds only gave them Tk100 if they could snatch any cell phone, he added.
The detained kids were sent to Oporajeyo Bangladesh, a non-government organisation working for the distressed children to take care of them.
Contacted, Shahima Akhter, a staff of Oporajeyo Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had taken them to their safe home at Lalbagh.
“We will find out their family members and hand them over,” she said, adding that if the law enforcers gave some attention to such crime, this kind of crime could be stopped.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Detective Branch of Police, said sometimes under-age children were arrested, but they could not take action considering their ages.
“However, our members are active to take stern actions,” he added.