Robberies increased but rape cases declined, a top police official told this correspondent seeking anonymity.

He said 310 people were killed in the 10 districts till November 15 this year against 755 last year. The victims this year included 23 political leaders and 6 journalists. Most of rest of the victims were businessmen, killed for toll.

The police official claimed improvement in overall law and order in the crime-infested areas because of vigilance by law enforcers including Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).

Death of alleged criminals in 'crossfire' with law enforcers also declined during the period, he said. A total of 108 hardened criminals were killed in crossfire so far this year against 158 last year, he claimed.

"Allout steps have been taken to check crimes and there has been some success. We are hoping more success in an area where outlaws are active for about 30 years."

"The law and order will not improve overnight because most of the outlaws behind murders are sheltered by political leaders of ruling and opposition parties", he claimed.

A section of leaders of major political parties are involved with various criminal gangs and outlaws in the region. These leaders use them to establish supremacy in their areas and to rig vote during election. This is an old tradition in the area, he said.

According to sources, there are about 8000 illegal firearms still in possession of outlaws in the 10 districts. At least 10 outlawed parties with 20 gangs are active in the region covering Kushtia, Jhenidah, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Magura, Jessore, Khulna, Narail, Sathkhira and Bagerhat districts. Their total strength could be around 10,000, other police sources said.

Of the crossfire victims, 16 were top leaders of outlawed parties and eight were chiefs of various criminal gangs. The highest number of 79 crossfire incidents took place in Kushtia, followed by 69 in Khulna.

Of the crossfire victims, 95 belonged to PBCP (Janajuddho), including five ringleaders. The PBCP-ML lost 81 including two top leaders and BCP lost 20 including two top leaders. Other outlawed parties lost 61 cadres to crossfire incidents. Two Union Parishad (UP) chairmen, four BNP men and eight Awami League activists were also killed in crossfire during the period, police records said.

The law and order is showing signs of improvement following the death of outlaws, the police official said. Police records show that incidents of abduction in the last ten months rallied around last year's figure of about 200.

But incidents of highway robbery increased to 112 so far from last year's around 100.

The most sensational incident took place on the Meherpur-Kushtia road on November 1 when highwaymen took away Tk 30 lakh from traders in a bus days before the Eid-ul-Fitr.

The number of rape incidents reported to police would be around 35 so far this year against last year's 63, the police official said.

Police also had to pay for this as outlaws vowed to avenge the 'crossfire' killings.

The outlaws killed at least 18 police personnel including three police officers in the region in 21 month since January last year, the police official said.