Killing spate scales up sense of insecurity

Alarming number of murder incidents in last few days attests to the deterioration of law and order in the city triggering a sense of insecurity among the citizens.
Despite special anti-crime drives from May 13 at least 15 people were killed in the first nine days of June while the number was 20 last month.
Apparently Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is unable to cope with the ever-increasing crime incidents due to inadequate number of patrol teams and negligence in duty of some officers at check-posts and during patrol.
DMP sources said there are around 435 snatching-prone areas in the city while DMP has arranged about 275 police patrol teams--an average of five teams for each police station.
Moreover about 40 gangs of car lifters and around 300 members of dope gangs are active in the capital.
Amid such situation DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque has decided to join the anti-crime drives along with the deputy and assistant commissioners.
Shahidul Haque said they have launched convoy drives, which include several patrol cars and a good number of police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel during operation, to create a sense of security among the city dwellers.
All the efforts made by the law enforcers have oftentimes proved ineffective as criminals in most cases pass through police check posts and deceive foot-patrol by simply shifting their timing and adopting newer techniques.
Some recent incidents of killings denote that armed criminals chose late night as their time of activity and in most the cases they used private cars and motorbikes as their mode of transport.
For instance, on June 3 moneychanger Faruk Ahmed Khan, 48, and his driver Anisur Rahman Rana sustained bullet injuries when criminals in a private car snatched Tk 2 lakh and two mobile phone sets from their possession while they were returning home at dead of night. Two days later Faruk succumbed to his injuries.
Iqbal Hossain who fell victim to snatchers in East Rampura a few days ago said if the check-posts ensure foolproof checking of private cars and motorbikes, criminals would not be able to commit crimes using faster vehicles to get away.
He said "I used to return from work between 11:00 pm and 12:30am as I need to rush from one end to the other of the city but now I dare not go out after dark."
DMP Commissioner said "Police alone cannot check crime in such mega city if social initiatives are not taken in this regard since social values are declining."
He said he had asked high police officials to beef up night vigilance in the city streets to ensure proper service at check posts and during patrol teams.
DMP has recently taken some initiatives to contain crimes. It has set up interrogation cells at all the eight Deputy Commissioners' (DC) offices, a Detective Branch cell to detect criminals through their cellphones and assigned 100 to 125 reserve forces to the DCs.
Moreover, DMP has deployed additional 3000 men by forming 100 more patrol teams in the capital.