Dangerous gangs posing as law enforcement officers have been active at various points on the Dhaka-Mawa expressway and nearby roads. Several people have recently been detained on allegations of mugging, kidnapping for ransom and robbery while disguised as members of law enforcement agencies.
Initial police questioning has found that some of these gangs include members dismissed or suspended from various units of law enforcement agencies.
Istiak Ashfaq Russell, officer-in-charge of the Munshiganj District Detective Branch, told Naya Diganta on Wednesday afternoon (September 30) that the gangs deceive people on the Dhaka-Mawa expressway, sometimes posing as DB and sometimes as RAB. In most cases, DB has managed to catch several gangs in advance, and its teams are making every effort to make sure such crimes cannot happen, he said.
On Sunday (September 27), seven people, including two dismissed army members, were detained in Sreenagar, Munshiganj, while preparing to commit a robbery disguised as law enforcement officers. Seized from them were a silver Toyota microbus, a red Hero Xblade motorcycle, three RAB vests, two walkie-talkies, a plastic and a metal toy pistol, two pairs of handcuffs, three fake ID cards bearing the RAB logo, an electric shock device and other equipment.
The detained are Farhad Hossain, 40, of Sakhipur, Shariatpur; dismissed soldier Nadim Mahmud Shanto alias Raihan Hossain, 30, of Badalgachhi, Naogaon; dismissed army sergeant Mizanur Rahman, 41, of Pangsha, Rajbari; Abdul Alim, 32, of Barguna Sadar; Sakibur Zaman Mehedi, 26, of Magura Sadar; Mehedi Hasan Sujon, 35, of Charfasson, Bhola; and driver Abu Hanif, 32, of Barguna Sadar.
Superintendent of Police Md Menhajul Alam confirmed the details at a press conference at his office that evening. He said DB learned from a tip-off at around 12:30pm that a gang in a microbus and on a motorcycle was heading towards Singpara to rob a trader’s gold while posing as RAB. A DB team set up a checkpoint near Haribari bridge on the Chhanbari-Ichhapura road in Sreenagar upazila.
At around 1:15pm the two suspicious vehicles were signalled to stop. A man in the front passenger seat of the microbus, wearing a RAB vest, introduced himself as a RAB officer and showed a walkie-talkie. Finding this suspicious, DB members challenged them, and when they tried to flee, chased and caught all seven.
In initial questioning, the detained said a gold trader at Sreenagar bazar was preparing to go to Munshiganj Sadar with about one and a half kilograms of gold, and their plan was to pick him up posing as RAB and loot the jewellery. The SP said the detained had long been stopping buses and microbuses on the Dhaka-Mawa expressway and nearby areas while posing as law enforcement and robbing passengers of everything, and face several cases at police stations across the country.
On January 24, district DB detained six people while they tried to commit a robbery posing as DB on the road near the Padma Bridge North police station area in Louhajang upazila on the expressway. The same day, a speeding suspicious microbus was stopped in lane 4 next to the Padma Bridge toll plaza and the disguised robbers inside were detained, with a toy pistol, a pair of handcuffs, four DB vests, a wireless set and a Chinese laser light among the items recovered. Of the six detained in that operation, two were dismissed or suspended police members and one a dismissed army member.
At around 10:45pm on September 26, six members of an inter-district robbery gang were detained while lying in wait behind bushes in the Bejgaon area beside the Hasara-ferry ghat service lane of the expressway, preparing to commit robbery. Acting on a tip-off, Sreenagar police ASI Yar Mahmud and his team found several people gathered with sharp local weapons and robbery equipment. When eight or nine tried to flee on sensing police, six were caught.
Under questioning, they admitted targeting people driving from Dhaka to Mawa for outings, lying in wait by the service lane to mug them or rob them by felling trees across the road, police said. Machetes, sharp knives, torches, jute rope and tape were seized.
The district police media cell said Munshiganj police remain on constant alert to ensure overall security, with intelligence surveillance, checkpoints and patrols under way at key spots to prevent theft, robbery, mugging, disorder and the spread of drugs.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report