Six or seven people broke into Khorshed Alam’s gold shop in the Tantibazar area of the capital, shot him in the hand and made off with Tk15 lakh in cash, according to Kotwali police station records.
The incident took place just after sunset on Wednesday, at a location a mere seven minutes’ walking distance from the Tantibazar police box. Two days after the armed robbery, police admitted they had no leads.
As they made their getaway, the criminals shot at random, hitting local cloth trader, Jewel Sheikh, in the abdomen. Both men are undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
AKM Firoz, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kotwali police station, said an investigation was under way, but the suspects had not been tracked down and the looted money had not been recovered.
Business owners and residents in the capital say armed robberies have become an all too common occurrence. More significantly, muggers were now increasingly using firearms and bombs, police detective branch (DB) sources confirmed.
When asked about the situation, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that law enforcers were aware of the situation. He said the incidents were being investigated, sometimes with satisfactory results.
But police had made no progress in investigating a robbery at Dilu Road in Moghbazar on Tuesday, in which robbers detonated crude bombs and fired gunshots as they looted Tk30 lakh in broad daylight, according to Ramna police station records.
Even worse was the August 17 mugging of Mujibur Rahman, during which the victim was shot and injured in front of Mirpur police station before the robbers had made off with Tk30 lakh, according to Mirpur police station records.
Cases not registered
Human rights organisations allege that the actual number of incidents may be double the number registered as cases by police.
They said local police stations take down general diaries in robbery incidents rather than filing them as cases. Police insiders said that police stations often did not want to register the cases in order to lessen their work load. General diary investigations are far less demanding than those required for registered cases, sources said.
Police statistics showed a total of 164 registered cases of robbery across the country this May. Of these, 23 took place in the capital. In June, 174 cases were registered, of which 35 occurred in the capital, while 145 robbery cases were registered in July, of which 27 took place in Dhaka.
But a search of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) register book revealed at least 30 people had been treated at the hospital just last week for injuries sustained in muggings. Many more people were treated in similar incidents at Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, the Orthopaedic Hospital and various private hospitals.
The high incidence of treatment for mugging related injuries at hospitals compared with the number of registered cases suggests that muggings and armed robberies were under-reported, sources said.
In many cases, victims were not able to register their cases due to alleged non-cooperation by the police.
The chief executive of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, Advocate Alina Khan, said a monitoring cell was needed to ensure that police registered mugging and robbery cases.
Criminals were getting away because police were not registering cases in these incidents and were not working properly at the field level, she added.
Although Dhaka Metropolitan Police DB marked out 441 places in the capital as mugging danger zones, muggings and robberies were taking place everywhere in the capital.
When asked about this, Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner, said police had arrested a number of armed robbers but most of them had got out on bail and were soon back on the streets, committing crimes.
Police sweep capital
After a spate of daring armed muggings left a number of gunshot injured victims in its wake, the police yesterday launched a week-long special drive to combat criminal gangs.
Together with Detective Branch (DB) officers, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), yesterday began to sweep through the capital in search of armed robbery gangs.
Meer Rezaul Alam, joint commissioner (crime) of the DMP, confirmed that a decision was taken during the monthly security meeting to conduct a drive to bring the soaring crime levels under control.
Motijheel, Ramna and Mirpur police station crime units ran anti-crime sweeps from August 5 to August 11. Renewed crime-busts started last night, he said.
When asked about the drive, Shirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Khilgaon police station, said a list of noted criminals had been prepared and raids were under way to bring them to book.
Sayed Ziauzzaman, officer-in-charge of Pallabi police station, said his station had received instructions from headquarters to launch the special drive and his staff was focused on arresting criminals and recovering illegal firearms.
