A spurt in crime
A number of murders of macabre proportion have taken place in the metropolitan city and elsewhere in the country compelling us to wonder about the competence of the law enforcing agencies. In the recent months, a lady was murdered in her own flat in Dhanmondi while two more met the same fate in a Banani flat. We remember, only a couple of days ago, an army personnel was knifed to death by a group of snatchers when he tried to catch one of them. And as recently as on Thursday last, a trader was shot dead by local extortionists when he refused to oblige them. The discovery of the dead bodies of two young schoolboys in an abandoned house in the city added yet another gruesome dimension to crime situation in the country. These are examples of some recent crime committed in the city. In the rural areas, a major crime that was reported from Bagmara upazila on Thursday was the murder of a police constable and infliction of grievous injury on four others by some outlaws. They had raided the police camp and looted their firearms.
What is noticeable as a pattern is that in most cases perpetrators have used some form of lethal weapon, but the most frightening of all is the use of small handguns by young criminals. According to some reports, a new crop of young criminals have replaced older ones to take control of the underworld. The report further revealed that young criminals having easy access to handguns could be hired to kill a person for only a couple of thousand takas. Most of these young thugs are heroin addicts and they waylay or kill people for money.
It has been discussed often in various fora that the police force lacks the required motivation to be proactive in combating crime. Low salary, lack of risk allowance, politicisation of the force in the past and lack of modern equipment remain at the root of slow action by the police. We therefore feel the impediments to modernising the police force and boosting up their morale should be given a priority if the administration wants to fight crime. Unless crime and criminals are sufficiently neutralised through raiding the dens of gun suppliers, our achievements in other sectors will pale into insignificance. We feel, it is the right time for the law enforcing agencies to declare war against the criminals.
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