Editorial
Diplomats' worry over crime
A resolute handling of law and order situation called for
It is surely a matter of shame when even foreigners based in Dhaka on diplomatic assignment begin to feel themselves under threat from criminal elements. Indeed, as the dean of the diplomatic corps has already pointed out in a letter to the Foreign Office, there have been specific incidents where foreigners were mugged and threatened with physical injury if they refused to hand over their belongings to gangs of youths accosting them on the road. And these incidents have been taking place in supposedly the most secure of urban areas such as Gulshan and Baridhara. Where earlier the probability of diplomats coming under assault from criminal elements in Bangladesh was unthinkable, it is now clear that the overall slide in law and order we notice in the capital has simply spilled over into its diplomatic enclave.
Every now and then citizens have been reassured by the authorities that arresting law and order downslide has been accorded a high priority. As if to prove the point that crime could not make any entry into vulnerable areas, police checkposts were set up and individuals and vehicles under suspicion have been subjected to detailed search by the law enforcers. But that does not appear to have helped the situation any. What we have before us now is a perceptible surge in criminal activities ranging from the petty to the grave. Muggers and extortionists have been very active, thereby threatening the social equilibrium.
The fact that there have been periodic changes in the police administration (and these changes were meant to bring about an improvement in the law and order situation) has hardly had any impact on the ground. For all the hoopla about special drives against crime and the like, nothing substantive has been noticed where a lessening of criminal activities is concerned. What is truly bizarre is that criminals clearly seem to be outsmarting the police all the time. Despite all the pious sentiments expressed regarding a resolute handling of crime and despite the ubiquitous presence of the police everywhere, muggings, robberies and killings have continued. Criminals move around the city almost at will in CNG scooters and taxis, targeting people at bus and railways stations as well as lanes and streets all over town. Amazingly, the police do not seem to know how to deal with the menace. Surveillance has generally been marked by failure and intelligence gathering has been poor. Often, streetlights do not function. Of course, senior police officials claim that the situation has improved. But that has been more notional than real.
In these circumstances, it is for the administration, particularly the home ministry, to convince people that it is capable of turning Dhaka and by extension the rest of the country into a crime-free zone. Unless that happens, it is essentially the economy which will take a bad mauling.
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