Crime Wave Sweeps Through Bangladesh

If Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year regime in Bangladesh was seen as the highpoint of State repression of opposition parties and dissenters, the post-Hasina regime of Prof.Muhammad Yunus is becoming synonymous with chaos, street crimes and attacks on women.

Crime now engulfs the whole country, the streets of Dhaka as well as towns in the outlying districts.

During the July-August 2024 uprising, the targets of criminal attacks were those belonging to Shaikh Hasina’s party, the Awami League, and also the Hindu minority, which was seen as pro-Hasina and pro-India to boot.

But now, all vulnerable groups are being targeted. Women, especially modern women, are singled out, especially by Islamists. Modern women are an eyesore for resurgent Islamic groups, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-i-Islam. The Jamaat is in a tacit alliance with the Yunus government, which had lifted the ban imposed on it by Hasina.

Thefts, mugging, robbery, extortion, murder and rape are occurring in Dhaka and various parts of the country, wrote Prothom Alo, a leading Dhaka daily.

“No one had anticipated that the law and order situation would deteriorate to such an extent within just six and a half months after interim government came in power,“ the paper said in an edit.

“At approximately 10:30 pm on Sunday, a gold trader in the Banasree area of the capital was shot and miscreants made off with 200 tolas of gold and cash amounting to Taka 100,000. On the same day, in Savar’s Ashulia, robbers broke into the home of an actor and his wife, shot them and fled,” it recalled.

In protest, students and individuals from various professions blocked Mirpur road at Asad Gate on Sunday. Students of Dhaka University held a rally demanding the resignation of Adviser of Home Affairs, Lt.Gen (Rtd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Baharul Alam acknowledged the deterioration of law and order in Dhaka stating that mugging has increased both during night and day.

However, the Home Adviser Lt.Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury blamed “associates of the Awami League” who, he alleged, “were trying to destabilise the country.”

But Prothom Alo pointed out that despite two weeks of “Operation Devil Hunt” incidents of mugging, robbery and extortion continued to rise.

“Traders in the markets are being ordered by leaders and activists of a particular political party to pay them tolls. Local gangsters are openly attacking couples on the streets. Armed gangs are looting passengers on running buses and incidents of violence against women continue to rise. Despite the deployment of police, along with the Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard of Bangladesh, Ansar and even the armed forces, criminal activities show no signs of decreasing,” the paper said.

During the uprising, a significant number of police weapons and ammunition had gone missing. Without apprehending these criminals and recovering the lost arms and ammunition, any expectation of improved law and order will be unrealistic, the paper said. Revolutionary fervour had demoralized police personnel who refrained from taking stern action.

The people are now taking the law into their own hands. A young man was killed and two others brutally beaten up on suspicion of being muggers in incidents in Gazipur's Tongi and Dhaka's Uttara areas. In Uttara, two youths were hung upside down on a footbridge near BNS Centre and beaten up.

According to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police a crackdown against criminals led to the arrest of 248 persons in Dhaka. Among them were 14 dacoits, 16 snatchers, seven extortionists, 11 thieves, 22 drug dealers, and 44 individuals with arrest warrants, along with other criminals.

However, according to The Daily Star, this had little effect in the absence of leadership.

“Home Adviser LtGen.Jahangir Alam seldom takes questions, let alone sit for interviews, where he might be held accountable. He has hardly shown any initiative since he took office and even yesterday, it dawned on him to call for a press conference in the middle of the night only to say that there was nothing to fear.”

Crime is mounting outside Dhaka too. Robbers stopped school picnic buses on Ghatail-Sagardighi Road in Tangail's Ghatail upazila early yesterday and looted cash, gold ornaments, and phones. Khalilur Rahman, headmaster of Sowaitpur High School of Fulbaria in Mymensingh, said students, teachers, and guardians were going to Green Valley Park of Natore for a picnic on four buses. He said around 4:00am, a gang of 10 to 12 robbers stopped their buses by placing tree logs on the road near Sagardighi area. Later, the gang, armed with sharp weapons, looted 10 mobile phones, some cash, and gold ornaments from the passengers.

Veteran journalist Subir Bhaumik wrote in The Diplomat about mounting attacks on women by Islamists inspired by Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazad-i-Islam.

In late January, a friendly women’s football match in Joypurhat had to be cancelled following violent protests by students from religious seminaries. The students were joined by Islamist radical activists who ransacked the venue and chased away spectators who had bought tickets to witness the matches.

Another match involving two women’s teams was postponed in Dinajpur a day before following a similar demonstration by angry protesters who had armed themselves with clubs.

Abu Bakkar Siddique, the headmaster of a local religious school in Joypurhat, took part in the protests with his students and teachers and students from other religious schools. “Girls football is un-Islamic and it is our religious duty to stop anything that goes against our beliefs,” Siddique told Al Jazeera.

But the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) took a strong stand to defend women’s football, with its media manager Sadman Sakib saying ” football is for everyone, and women have full rights to participate in it.” Other football organizers in Bangladesh pointed to women’s football teams in other Muslim-majority nations, including conservative Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Morocco, which reached the African Cup final but lost to South Africa.

Women’s football became very popular in Bangladesh after the country’s women’s team first won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship in 2022 and then successfully defended it two years later, defeating Nepal in the final last November. The women footballers went on to become instant heroines in a country starved of sporting glory.

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, also accorded the SAFF-winning Bangladesh women’s football team a formal reception at his office.

Bhoumik quotes Yunus saying that the players had given the country “a taste of success it badly needed.” He even asked the women footballers to “write down and share their individual aspirations, struggles, and demands,” promising to fulfil their demands. “If anything can be addressed now, we will do it now,” Yunus promised.

But Yunus is powerless now, as he is under the control of the Jamaat and Hefazat.

FLocal media reported that in November, actress Mehazabien Chowdhury had to turn back just before she was to open a new showroom in the port city of Chittagong on a “security issue””.

On January 26, another film star Pori Moni was forcibly prevented from opening a new department store in Tangail in northeast Bangladesh due to anger from Hefazat-e-Islam and other groups.

Two days later, actress Apu Biswas was stopped from opening a restaurant in Dhaka due to opposition from local religious clerics. The Dhaka book fair was attacked because it was showcasing books by anti-fundamentalist writer Taslima Nasreen, who lives in exile in India threatened by Bangladeshi Islamic zealots.

Bhoumik notes that “since taking charge, the Yunus administration has lifted the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s biggest Islamist party, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence and sided with the Pakistan Army in its genocidal campaign during the 1971 Liberation War. Hard line Islamist radicals sentenced for murder and on terrorism charges, like Jasimuddin Rahmani, chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been let off.

The Ansarullah terror group, which enjoys close ties with the Al Qaida in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) , had threatened media companies to sack their women employees or face severe consequences.”

Bangladesh student leaders and members of the Advisory Council tend to blame pro-Hasina elements and India for every blemish seen in Bangladesh, including law and order. India is deeply disturbed by this tendency.

Days after his meeting with Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain in Muscat, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar advised Dhaka to refrain from "ridiculous" claims made against India. Jaishankar said Bangladesh cannot say it wants good ties with India while blaming New Delhi at the same time for everything that goes wrong for them domestically.

"They (Bangladeshis) must make up their minds on what kind of relationship they want to have with New Delhi. We have a long history with Bangladesh. We have a very special history with Bangladesh - one that goes back to 1971," he added.

"There are two aspects to the problem that our bilateral ties are facing - the first being communal attacks on minorities. What is very troubling for India is the spate of attacks on minorities. It obviously is something that impacts our thinking. It is something we have to speak up about, which we have done," Jaishankar said.

"The second aspect is that they have their domestic politics - which you can agree with or disagree with, but at the end of the day, we are their neighbour, and they have to make up their mind on their outlook towards us."

The Government of India, Jaishankar said, has "sent a clear message to Bangladesh that New Delhi would like things to calm down. But it does not appreciate Bangladesh's constant hostile messaging towards India.”

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