Militants among 'unknown' tenants

Since November last year, Dhaka Metropolitan Police started keeping records of house owners and tenants in the city, and by now it has information of some 90 percent home owners and tenants.

But thanks to that missing 10 percent, some militants have been successful in executing their clandestine operations hiding their information, police claim.

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They say their investigation so far reveal that some of the attackers involved in some recent attacks are among those who did not submit their information. Police have no clue about them because they remain as the city's “unknown tenants”.

For example, the Gulshan café attackers rented and stayed in two flats at Shewrapara and Bashundhara Residential Area hiding their identities before launching the deadliest terrorist attack in the country, killing 20 hostages and two police officers.

Owners of both the houses and several others were arrested for renting out their flats without taking the tenants' information.

“The deadly attack in Gulshan café demonstrates how important it is to have verified information of tenants for national and individual security,” DMP Joint Commissioner (crime) Krishna Pada Roy told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said they wanted cooperation from all to keep record of city dwellers in efforts to bring down crime rate.

The bloody Dhaka siege proves that a major disaster can take place if tenants' information is not maintained, he added. 

However, talking to The Daily Star last night Masud Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Mirpur division of DMP, said the Shewrapara landlord submitted the forms of three tenants. Police were now verifying the information.

Police officials also cite examples how the information database can help catch law breakers.

On May 28, police nabbed a couple hiding in Sreepur of Gazipur after allegedly torturing their young domestic help to death using their details in Mohammadpur Police Station, said DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman.

“Out of the 20 lakh forms distributed among city dwellers by 49 police stations in the DMP area, around 18 lakh forms have so far been submitted with details of house owners, tenants and service staff,” he told this paper last night.

Each form can contain information of five members of a family, meaning the 20 lakh forms distributed will cover 1 crore of the city's 1.5 crore population.

On February 29, some three months after police started collecting the information, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia formally requested all to provide the “identification information” by March 15.

The told the media that suspected militants were taking cover in the city in guise of tenants and were attempting to carry out subversive activities.

There were instances where the suspects moved out of their houses safely after committing a crime and then moved into a new one.

The police move sparked concern among city dwellers whether their personal information would be misused.

Three days after the formal announcement by the DMP boss, a writ petition was filed with the High Court seeking an order to stop the process.

But on March 13, the HC cleared the way for the DMP to collect information about residents in its jurisdiction. It said the DMP was allowed to take any step under DMP rules and regulations of 2006 to prevent terrorism and militant activities in the city.

Police said they sought information in three types of forms -- for house and flat owners, for tenants and for mess owners and their tenants.

The form for house and flat owners asks for 17 types of information with photographs.

These are the individual's name, father's name, date of birth, marital status, the type of the house, present and permanent addresses, religion, occupation, work address, educational qualification, mobile phone number, email ID, national ID number, passport number, contact person, and names and details of house helps, drivers, and security guards with their photos.

The tenant's form asks for 15 types of information and photographs and the one for mess owners and their tenants, 13 types of information and photographs.

Asked about the present status of the forms submitted to police station, Krishna Pada Roy said they preserved all the hard copies and would soon install a software programme to make a database of the city dwellers.