Death of an NSU teacher

The death of a teacher of North South University at the hands of muggers in Dhaka the other day only re-emphasises the nature of criminality that has lately been at work in the streets of Dhaka. We have been hearing of elements working in an organised manner in order to trap people, rob them of their valuables and often maim or kill them in the process. What is commonly known in local parlance as 'molom parties' are actually sinister elements employing such bizarre tactics as rubbing green chili and various kinds of chemicals on victims' eyes before robbing them of cash and then leaving them helpless on a roadside.
There are times when any person who tries to resist these muggers ends up being stabbed; or, as it happened in the case of the NSU teacher, dead from strangulation. A few days ago, a young woman returning home to Lalmatia in a CNG autorickshaw was pounced upon by a gang of criminals, who not only rubbed chili in her eyes and robbed her of her handbag but also subjected her to a beating. Earlier this month, a young man (and he was suffering from conjunctivitis) boarded a 'tempo' in Mohakhali and soon found to his horror that his co-passengers were all members of a criminal gang. They beat him up, subjected his eyes to chili rubbing and decamped with his bag.
These are but a few instances of how crime of this nature has been on the rise in the city. There are others which largely go unreported but which occur all the same. And now that the Eid season is close by, it is feared that such incidents of mugging could be on a rise. A common factor about most of these mugging incidents is that they involve CNG autorickshaws. Individuals board one of these vehicles and then discover that at a point a group of three or four men jump into it as the driver slows down. What happens next hardly needs any retelling. The suspicion is that there are clear links between some CNG drivers and the criminal gangs. It should therefore be easy for the police to act against these elements through more surveillance and increased patrolling. They have their job cut out for them. Let them do it and reassure citizens that the roads are safe for them to travel on.