A 20km stretch of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Gazipur has been turned into a haven for extortion, allegedly by the local highway police who continue to harass drivers on the roads unless they agree to pay bribes to be allowed to use the highway.
The road between sadar upazila’s Bhabanipur to Nayanpur-Jainabazar in Sreepur upazila is reportedly the focal point of the extortion, with the police stating different reasons – such as lack of vehicle fitness and faulty registration documents – to extort money from truck drivers on the road, instead of filing cases against them.
Local residents alleged that personnel from the Mawna Highway police station stopped trucks on the highway and took money from the drivers throughout the day, instead of making efforts to prevent road accidents or to stop the plying of illegal goods on the road. The officer-in-charge of the station, Sanwar Hossain, was behind such activities, locals claimed; adding that lax traffic supervision caused regular traffic jams on the highway.
Sources said the highway police carried out their extortion using five points on the highway: in front of the police station, near the National Feed Mill in Bhabanipur, the number two C&B speed breaker, Nayanpur Bazar and Jaina Bazar.
The ill-practice has gained pace in recent months after the government decided to stop the operation of vehicles that were overloaded, the sources added. Instead of stopping the overweight trucks, the police are now allowing the vehicles to pass through if the drivers agree to pay between Tk500 and Tk2000.
In an attempt to squeeze out extra money, the police were also reportedly falsely charging trucks of violating the weight limit. The truckers who refused to pay were being harassed regularly as police detained them using different excuses.
In order to avoid harassment by the police, the drivers had to pay around Tk250-Tk2,000 to be allowed passage.
The Mawna police station OC Sanwar, however, termed the extortion allegations as baseless. Claiming that the police stopped vehicles on the road as part of their routine task, he added that the vehicles are allowed to pass if their documents are in order but face cases if they violate regulations.
Kabir Ahmed, additional police superintendent of the Highway Police, said he had no information about such practices being carried out on the highway.