Law and order is witnessing a slide with an increase in criminal activities in the city and elsewhere in the country, although law-enforcement agencies and the government claim to have the situation under control.
Despite such claims of the police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and other law-enforcement agencies, a large number of crime victims have the impression that they are not getting any remedy even after seeking help.
"This approaches have pushed people into a helpless situation," says noted human rights activist Sultana Kamal, who was also an adviser to the caretaker government. She adds, "The government should take necessary steps if the people don't get remedy from the law-enforcement agencies."
A minister of the ruling Awami League himself recently became puzzled to see traffic policemen standing in a reluctant mood instead of easing traffic movement amid severe congestion.
It has already been evident how law and order started to collapse centring establishment of supremacy in the students' dormitories, different bus and launch terminals, parking places at airport and footpaths after the national polls.
Besides, the increasing incidents of murder, robbery, mugging, theft and forgery have reached such a level that people have become panicked and often dare not move freely even in the day.
Armed criminals have recently stormed a showroom of Butterfly in Jatrabari in broad daylight, shot a salesman and took away cash and other valuables. Another criminal gang broke into a Lalmatia house and robbed all the valuables.
These are a few examples of innumerable criminal incidents, which are spreading insecurity in the public mind."Whatever the crime statistics are, my observation is that perceptively the sense of insecurity has increased a bit," says M Shahjahan, former inspector general of police (IGP).
"Crimes like mugging, hijacking and robbery have increased, while activities of the ogyan and malom parties [dope gangs] have created panic among the people," adds Shahjahan, who is also a former adviser to the caretaker government.
Five days after the government assumed power, criminals on January 12 fled with about Tk 3 lakh in broad daylight from a client at the IFIC Bank's Dhanmondi branch.
Locals caught one of the criminals and turned him in to the police and Rab with his mobile phone. Both the agencies assured the victim of recovering the money within a few hours as they had got one criminal with cellphone.
Both the agencies immediately asked reporters not to run the news to help them net the muggers. But the other muggers are still at large and the money hasn't been recovered.
The law-enforcers later told the victims it is difficult to recover the money as the muggers switched off their cellphones.The victim was further told that the law-enforcers were busy with "bigger crimes" and did not have enough time to pay for a "petty" incident.
Sources however say a source of Detective Branch (DB) was involved in the incident and that is why the police are not much interested in the case.
According to police crime ratings, killing is a much bigger offence than mugging. But there are many instances that the law-enforcement agencies could not make any convincing progress in the "bigger crimes".
"Though the government is repeatedly saying that they are taking proper measures to maintain law and order, they should examine the reasons behind the deteriorating situation and combat crime with an iron hand," says Sultana Kamal.
Former IGP Shahjahan said, "The number of reports on crime in the police stations is less than the real incidents as many victims don't go to the police. They believe they would not get any remedy and rather might be harassed again."
"It is very urgent to restore confidence of the people in police," he said.He added criminals always work through a network, which becomes more active under the political governments as they consider this atmosphere in their favour.
"The criminals always search for a guardian who has control over the police. A nexus is established comprising criminals, a section of police and politicians," he observed."Steps should be taken against the guardians of the criminals to abolish the criminals' networks or the nexus."
Meanwhile, some police officials say they are considering the present situation as a transitional period because of probable transfer and posting as all the new governments do so.
Some of them express fear of politicisation in their department in the name of transfer, posting and promotion."I don't know my next destination, so it's better to go slow to understand the changed situation," says an officer-in-charge of a police station in the capital.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Naim Ahmed told The Daily Star they have beefed up security measures including installation of check posts, police patrol and special drives.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun on Friday at DMP Headquarters told journalists there is no reluctance among the police and the force is working sincerely.
But the patrol of police and Rab and their presence on the roads and crime scenes are apparently less compared to the time before the December 29 national polls.
