Make city too risky for drivers, bikers
Shamsur Rahman was coming home from a party on a Friday night with his wife. It was around midnight when he made a turn to his Gulshan road but he noticed a car behind him. It was moving slowly and it felt like it was shadowing him.
Shamsur asked his wife to keep an eye on the car. Instinct might have alerted him. As he stopped at the gate of his home and honked for the security guard to open it, he noticed the car pull over next door.
The doors flung open and two young men in jeans and t-shirts got out brandishing a baseball bat and a machete. Shamsur quickly put the car in reverse but before he could back out the men were at their windows.
The one with the baseball bat made a swing at the window shattering the glass on the driver’s side. He put his hand inside and Shamsur screamed which somehow baffled the men and Shamsur grabbed hold of the opportunity and backed out of the drive way at speed.
Shamsur and his wife are still in trauma. They hardly go out at night now.
Driver Moniruzzaman was going to fill up the car at a CNG filling station around 6:00am on April 12. As he made a turn in Lalmatia, a Toyota Premio blocked his way. Three men got down and asked angrily, “Why did you hit our car? Give us the key.”
Moniruzzaman refused and he knew his car did not hit the other car. The men brandished a pistol, dragged him out and sped away with the car and police are yet to trace it.
Masud was returning home around 11:30pm. On Dhanmondi Road-27, he got a flat tyre. He got down and changed the wheel. As he picked himself up from the road changing the wheel, four shadowy figures appeared. They had guns and machetes.
Masud handed over his key and yet they hit him on the head with the machete and sped away with the car leaving him in a pool of blood. He has not got his car back even though a year has gone by.
These are just some of the experiences, not of the worst ones, the city dwellers are going through and the incidents are increasing at an alarming rate. Dhaka has become a risky city for drivers and bikers.
In last three months, Dhaka Metropolitan Police recorded 159 carjacking cases in which four people were killed and over 100 got injured.
In March alone, 63 carjacking incidents were reported, 45 in February and 51 in January.
But sources said and police also admit that the actual figure is much higher as most incidents remain unreported.
Unless the criminals take away a vehicle, its owner does not bother to inform the police even if he or she suffers injuries.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Masudur Rahman said, “It is true that all the incidents are not recorded but we try to keep ourselves updated through our own sources.”
Masudur Rahman of DMP said police recovered 91 stolen vehicles and arrested 163 people in connection with carjacking in the first three months of this year.
Admitting the recent rise in carjacking incidents, Md Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of Police (DB-South), said, “Police also arrested a huge number of people but most of them got involved in carjacking again while they came out on bail.”
And since the criminals know they will get bail, they do not care about harming drivers and motorists.
“In the last six months, we have arrested several people several times as they got involved in the same crime after obtaining bail,” said Monirul. “So far, we have information that no new people have become involved in carjacking in the last five to six months. It is the same people or the same groups committing the crime over and over again.”
It is horrifying that police records show there were 2,094 carjacking incidents in last three years and they recovered only 693 vehicles and arrested 1,397 people.
Over 30 groups of carjackers involving around 200 criminals operate in the capital who apply various tactics to take away cars and they are innovative in style.
Some criminals use firearms, some others use rope for strangulating drivers to death. Some use chemicals to neutralise the victims while some mix poison with food and trick drivers into having them.
ADC Masudur Rahman, who led Car Theft Prevention Team since its launch in 2007, said there are also some groups who have expertise in changing the chassis numbers with machines and they also make fake BRTA documents.
Stolen vehicles are mainly sold in remote areas far away from the capital with fake chassis numbers and BRTA documents, said Masudur.
However, sources said stolen vehicles do ply the city streets.
They say that the vehicles are used with fake chassis numbers and BRTA documents and they are usually rented out to reputed companies so that none raises questions about those vehicle or dare to check their papers.
Criminals also take away CNG-run auto rickshaws and taxis shooting or injuring drivers and later demand huge ransom for the vehicles.
Dhaka Zila Auto-rickshaw Employees Union General Secretary Golam Faruq said in the last three months, criminals killed driver Alamgir and took away his auto-rickshaw and injured over 60 others.
“After the hijacking of the auto-rickshaws, criminals demand Tk 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh for their return,” said Golam Faruq.
Criminals sometimes drive away with posh motorcars or motorbikes injuring and in some cases killing the drivers and riders.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
