Doping gangs in city on the prowl
College student Sufian Kazi was returning to the capital from Narayanganj by a bus on Tuesday.
When the bus reached the Shanir Akhra area, a hawker got in and offered sweet pickles for free to some 10 passengers to taste those before buying.
As Sufian, aged about 20 years, tasted the pickles, he felt sick. Alighting from the bus at Jatrabari, he phoned his elder brother to inform him about his sickness.
He then hired a CNG-run three-wheeler to his brother's office at Motijheel. Minutes after reaching there, he fell unconscious.
Sufian's brother took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where he was nursed back to health 12 hours later.
“As I felt sick, I realised that what I ate was not safe,” the victim told this correspondent at the hospital.
Physicians said the patient became unconscious from the poison in pickles. They suspected the hawker might have been a member of a drugging gang.
Sufian was lucky enough not to have lost his wallet and mobile phone to the gang. But many others even lost their Eid bonus along with other valuables to these gangs.
Several such gangs have been active in the capital in recent weeks, said officials of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Passengers on buses, trains and launches as well as cattle traders are the targets of the thugs.
Sources at DMCH said over 200 people became victims of doping gangs in last month. The hospital has treated 40 such victims in last one week, including five yesterday.
According to DMP statistics, 54 incidents of drugging people were recorded last month, which left 58 dead or injured. Many victims even do not visit hospitals as they are not seriously ill.
Unidentified criminals allegedly poisoned Shohag Mia, 20, to death in the capital's Sayedabad on September 22.
Jatrabari police, who took Shohag to DMCH, said the victim was found unconscious in a bus at Sayedabad Bus Terminal.
Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DMP, said a drugging gang usually operates in two small groups of four to five members each.
The first group would target a person and leave him unconscious. Then the thugs would either leave the spot or mix with a crowd, he added.
The second group, said the cop, would steal the possessions of the victim.
Detectives last month rounded up 27 members of drugging gangs. Of them, 13 including two ringleaders were arrested on Tuesday in the capital's Motijheel area.
Cops on September 28 arrested another doping gang of seven people in Jatrabari and seized 280 pieces of sedatives, Noctin 5mg, from their possession. The seven were detained in a bus while preparing to commit a crime.
Prof Dr Mujibur Rahman of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College said they often find victims doped with high-powered sedatives like benzodiazepine, which make people unconscious quickly.
“Excessive doses of sedatives may lead to cardiac arrest and subsequent death of a victim,” he mentioned.
Comments