The incidence of mugging has assumed an alarming proportion in the capital and its adjacent areas recent time. Most of the mugging incidents go unreported as victims are generally reluctant to lodge complaints with the police.
Senior police officials said that police stations sometimes try to avoid registering robbery and mugging cases as they would have to face questions for the increasing number of such crimes in their jurisdictions. However, an increasing number of robberies and muggings were reported by the media in recent months.
Gangs of muggers usually target people returning from abroad and on their way to and from work, especially from midnight till dawn, said victims. They also mug those withdrawing money from banks or ATMs and traders coming to the city, added victims.
Several detectives admitted that it is a tough job to rope the muggers as they fall on the people leaving almost no clue behind and make swift escape through narrow lanes on motorbikes. Police vehicles are not suitable for this kind of chase, according to them.
Another highly placed DB official, preferring anonymity, said the DMP authorities field several teams equipped with motorbikes to curb such crime.
Police said the crime rate was low in 2021 due to the pandemic as most people stayed at home. But such crimes are on the rise with the increase in people's movements.
Wrongdoers are generally on the prowl in midnight and early morning on major streets, alleys and in deserted areas. Some groups target long-route buses. They board such buses as passengers and rob travellers after holding them hostage.
Several mugging victims blamed lapses in the city security as many areas remain without the presence of law enforcers during night.
According to criminologists, police patrol and other security measures turn lax at night while there have been widespread allegations of police stations not registering cases from victims.
DMP personnel then conducted some raids and busted a few gangs of robbers and muggers, but such crimes hardly came to a halt. Different DMP units captured some 60 such robbers and muggers in a month, said the DB officer.
Despite the raids, night and pre-dawn incidents of mugging and prowling by drug addicts continued.
Some 44 members of mugging and dope gangs were arrested from the capital's Paltan, Motijheel, Shahbagh and Khilgaon june 8, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said. The members of RAB also seized sharp weapons and sedatives from them. The mugging gang members said they lurk in the alleys of the capital. They mug pedestrians, rickshaw riders, and CNG-run auto-rickshaw passengers, brandishing sharp weapons.
DMP statistics also showed a constant rise in mugging cases in the capital over time as 103 such incidents were reported in 2020 and 176 incidents in 2021.
Some victims said that the police were reluctant to lodge crime cases and compelled people to file missing general dairies or cases even though they were robbed or mugged.
'They mostly engage in crimes for money to do drug. Some of the arrested were earlier individually accused and arrested for mugging or burglary. But after getting released from jail, they formed rackets and started prowling in the city at night for targets,' said the police off
'In Karwanbazar, parts of Begum Rokeya Sarani, parts of Mohammadpur, Jatrabari, Kamalapur, Motijheel, Old Dhaka, Kamrangirchar, Airport Road people are vulnerable to mugging,' the police officer said.
The police have recently caught some snatchers and found that they are mostly drug addicts, he further said.
'When they are short of money for buying drugs, they rob people of money and valuables,' the officer said. Some victims said that they had faced mugging by gangs at dawn or midnight.
These gangs use vehicles, especially motorbikes, to move around the city to snatch cash, cellphones, handbags, ornaments and other valuable items, they further said.
Following criticism, though the Dhaka Metropolitan Police have recently beefed up the night-time security in the metropolis such crimes have hardly made a retreat.
Though DMP has recently beefed up the night-time security in the city, such crimes have hardly decreased. After the incident, DMP conducted some raids and busted a few gangs of robbers and muggers.
