A ‘revenge’ gone too far

In yet another case of gang culture in the capital, a youth lost his life while a teenager has been held on charge of the murder.

The 14-year-old teen killed his 22-year-old neighbour Abdur Rob Pavel "to take revenge", as Pavel and his gang members were allegedly taunting him and disturbing his younger sister for the last eight months, said Detective Branch (DB) of police, after the end of the teenager's interrogation.

The accused would be placed before a court today, Jahidul Islam, an inspector of DB (north), told The Daily Star.

According to DB officials, the teenager was living with his parents and two sisters in a one-room house in Khilkhet area of the capital.

He had dropped out of school after fifth grade and used to work in a dyeing factory as well as restaurants to support his family.

A year back, Pavel's family moved to Khilkhet and started living in a flat close to the teenager's family. Pavel, a drug addict, formed a gang in the area with a dozen youths within a couple of months, according to locals and police officials.

Pavel often used to taunt the teenager, snatch away his money and cellphone, and harass his younger sister, said Kaisar Rezvy Koraishy, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, to The Daily Star, quoting the teenager. 

"Pavel's gang member also used to taunt the teenager and slap him if he tried to protest their activities," the boy was quoted as saying during interrogation.

Pavel's unruly behaviour made the teen angry; he often used to complain to Pavel's family over it, said the police official.

At one point, the teenager planned to take matters into his own hand, said the police official.

He built a good rapport with Pavel and started hanging out with him, he added. 

On February 22, the teen took Pavel to the Kawla graveyard, asking for help to recover a gold chain he had lost there.

They went to the graveyard around 8:30am, where the teen attacked Pavel with a kitchen knife as Pavel was busy searching for the chain. The teenager got injured by his own knife when Pavel tried to defend himself.

The teen then hit Pavel with a flowerpot he found near the graveyard, said police officials.

The teenager then threw the knife to a nearby pond, cleaned up his clothes, and went to Khilkhet Police Station o report the death.

He told police he left home with Pavel. When they reached near the graveyard, a rival gang member attacked them and killed Pavel on the spot. He added that the miscreants also attacked him but he managed to flee from the spot, according to police officials.

Police recovered the body from the graveyard around 11:30am, and a case was filed by Pavel's mother with Airport Police Station on that day.

Since then, police were looking for the rival gang members, but did not get any clue. DB police then also started an investigation, and started interrogating the teenager as a prime witness, said Mashiur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DB (north) police.

After finding his statement suspicious, DB police showed the boy arrested in the case and tried to glean information from him through counselling, and managed to do so eventually, added DC Mashiur.

NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT

Four teenagers have been killed in capital in last three years, in various incidents of gang rivalry. 

On January 18, 2017, Abdul Aziz was killed by rival gang members in Tejkunipara. Mehedi Hasan was killed in Dakshin Khan area on September 1 of the same year.

On march 21 last year, eighth-grader Kamrul Hasan Ridhoy was stabbed to death by rival gang members.

On July 7, Md Shawon was killed in the capital's Genderia.

In all these cases, the victims and the killers were both found to be teenagers or juveniles.