Members of law enforcement agencies are “completely unaware and clueless” about recent much-talked-about muggings committed by a gang of criminals using number plate-less Premio and Allion cars in the city’s upscale areas.
A campaign against such muggings by using private cars has been launched in the social networking websites including Facebook.
The Facebook page Raise Awareness against Mugging – the Recent Premio/Allion Case says a group of youths riding some number plate-less Toyota Premio and Allion cars are involved in mugging people especially young girls and boys in Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Uttara and Banani.
They sometimes abduct young girls and boys, and snatch away valuables from them before they are released. Sometimes, they keep the girls confined and release them later in exchange for ransom from the victims’ families.
In the latest incident, the Facebook page mentions that the muggers whisked one Emdadul off into a Premio car at gunpoint on the Green Road around 9:45pm on Sunday. The victim was then on his motorcycle.
The muggers were four in number. They snatched one iphone 5s, Samsung S5 and two credit cards from Emdad. The snatchers later withdrew about Tk30 lakh from his account.
The muggers beat up Emdad and rubbed something in his eyes before he was pushed out of the car. The victim is now undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Whgen contacted Sheikh Maruf Hassan, deputy police commissioner of Ramna division, said they were yet to receive such complaints. “The law enforcers are active in the city to stop mugging and abduction.”
Around 10pm on June 18, a gang of criminals took away a boy and a girl, who had passed their A level examination, in a microbus from Gulshan 2 area while they were returning home.
Later, the criminals left the boy in Banani after the car moved through different parts of the city. They took everything away from the boy. They, however, kept the girl confined and blindfolded in an unknown location.
The next day the girl was released after her parents paid them Tk2 lakh as ransom demanded by the gang. The family did not contact any police station. The Dhaka Tribune got the details of the incident from a friend of the victims.
Asked about this, Lutful Kabir, deputy police commissioner of Gulshan division, said they had learned about some incidents from the social media.
In most cases, the victims’ families do not contact police and criminals are taking advantage of this opportunity, he said.
“I hope we will shortly be able to trace them,” Kabir said.
The trend started soon after the month of Ramadan began. Criminals target young girls and demand money easily payable by family members who do not contact police to avoid social disgrace.
A case study by the Dhaka Tribune found that in such cases the highest amount of ransom demanded was Tk500,000. The incident happened in Banani area from where criminals picked up a young girl while she was coming back home after attending a coaching class.
The most interesting thing is when the father of the victim told the gang of criminals that he was able to pay only Tk200,000, they agreed and the girl was released in Uttara House Building area after the money was sent on a specific bKash number.
Abul Kalam Azad, director of the intelligence unit of Rapid Action Battalion, told the Dhaka Tribune that the criminals used stolen vehicles to commit this type of crime. “They also use fake number plates.”