No teenage gangs will remain in Mohammadpur: DMP commissioner

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed has said there will be no teenage gangs in Mohammadpur, as police intensify efforts to improve the area's law and order situation.

He made the remarks at a law and order meeting with local residents at the Basila Police Lines in Mohammadpur on Saturday afternoon.

The commissioner said a comparison of crime statistics between the past three months and the preceding three months showed improvements in cases involving teenage gangs, drugs and snatching in Mohammadpur.

However, he said law and order should not be assessed solely through statistics. Residents want Mohammadpur to be free of snatching, teenage gangs and drugs, and police are working towards that goal, he added.

Mosleh Uddin said police have lists of drug spots and teenage gang hideouts in Mohammadpur and are conducting raids based on those lists. He instructed officers to intensify operations at the spots and hideouts.

He also ordered regular raids on rickshaw and auto-rickshaw garages, saying anyone found inside such garages at night should be arrested.

The commissioner said strict legal action would be taken against snatchers carrying knives, firearms, machetes or other locally made weapons if they attacked or attempted to rob anyone. Police would use firearms when legally necessary, he added.

He also said a police camp was planned at Chandrima Housing to improve law and order in Mohammadpur. A case over about five kathas of land there is pending in court, and the camp would be established if the verdict goes in favour of police, he said.

The DMP commissioner urged residents to support police through community policing and ward-based anti-drug and anti-teenage-gang committees.

RAB Director General Ahsan Habib Palash, DMP Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operations) Osman Gani, RAB-2 Commander Naimul Hasan, Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner Ibne Mizan, representatives of different political parties, local residents and senior police officials attended the meeting.

sks