The law and order situation has deteriorated seriously across the country for collecting extortion money ahead of Eid-ul-Fiter.
Source said some quarters of the police, different gangs of criminals, hawker leaders and local ruling party activists, were regularly taking tolls from footpath vendors.
In the name of the ruling party extortion has also assumed a serious proportion in the length and the breadth of the country, police sources said.
Hawkers of Dhaka have alleged that they are being subjected to extortion just days ahead of Eid. For the employment facilities many people were involved is selling goods at the footpath but some quarters of the police and ruling party activists are collecting extortion from them ahead of the Eid, source said.
Moreover, this year, they claimed that vendors have also had to pay Tk 25,000 as extortion in advance before even Ramzan began.
Agitating hawkers on Friday clashed with the police, leaving at least 15 people injured in the city’s bustling Gulistan. A total of 13 hawkers had been arrested from the spot, which sparked anger among the other city hawkers.
The Gulistan hawkers accused police of going into action after failing to extort money from them.
Shahidul Haq officer-in-charge (OC) Paltan police station told the reporters that the hawkers attacked them when they had tried to evict hawkers from the footpath.
Rawshan Ali, a hawker, blaming police for the turmoil, said, “The police regularly realise extortion money from us, but they try to evict us on different excuses when we refuse to pay them.”
“Today is no exception and so we just intercepted them when the police beat us up.” Ali said there were some buyers among those injured in the police action.
Another hawker Nazmul Haque said, “We have to pay money to Swechchha Sebak League and Juba League leaders along with the police.”
“We don’t believe the police and so we also give money to the leaders to stop them,” Nazmul added.
Muggers, Oli, Ahad and Redwan, realise toll money from the Gulistan area by introducing themselves as activists of Jatiya Juba League, a wing of the ruling party.
The Paltan police chief refuted all accusation against the police and said, “that incident did not centre extortion. Police would have taken action against all the hawkers if that was the case.”
Several hawkers of the Gulistan area told reporters that they have to pay Tk 50 to Tk 100 as extortion every day.
Thousands of hawkers carry out their business on the footpaths at Gausia, in front of the Chandrima Super Market, New Market, from Gausia intersection to Elephant road intersection, from Bata Signal to Science Lab intersection and from Science Lab intersection to New Market via Dhaka College.
Field investigation uncovered that the rate of extortion is high in the New Market and Elephant Road areas as these are the busiest shopping zones of the capital during Eid days.
Ratan Mia, a hawker of the Gausia Market area told reporters they have to pay Tk 300 every day to two gangs.”
He also alleged that Barkat, Bulu and Asif, who introduce themselves as student leaders of Dhaka College, were also involved in the extortion.
At least 50 extortionists identify themselves as police sources, the hawkers claimed.
In this regard, Md Mostafizur Rahman OC of the New Market police told reporters that they were not “informed of any extortion.”
He, however, added that they would investigate allegations against the police source.
