Incidence of carjacking rising in capital
Bibhas Chandra Saha
Courtesy New Age 19/8/09
Two vehicles, on an average, have been lifted daily in
More than 40 organised gangs of carjackers have been lifting vehicles from various places in the capital while 80 other small groups are also engaged in the same crime but on a smaller scale, said a senior police officer of the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
An organised gang, which commits a variety of crimes, usually comprises five to ten members while an ‘unorganised’ gang, which merely takes advantage of the situation, has two to three members each, said the police officer.
The carjackers are so desperate that they even dared to lift a minibus of Route No 6 from Gulshan in the second week of August. This may be the first public bus that has been lifted.
According to the DMP’s statistics, a total number of 419 vehicles like cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws and microbuses were lifted in the capital in the first seven months of this year, which means that about two vehicles have been lifted a day on an average. The number of motorcycles topped the list during the period.
The police arrested 233 people as carjackers and recovered 198 lifted vehicles during the 7-month period, revealed the statistics.
Mokhlesur Rahman, an assistant commissioner of the DB who led the special team against carjackers, said that the gangs use different techniques to lift vehicles.
Mokhlesur, who was transferred to Sardah in Rajshahi recently, said that some of the gangs use firearms to intimidate drivers while lifting vehicles, others use sharp weapons while others do not use any arms.
The gangs which have firearms usually hire the targeted vehicle and, after going some distance, take control of it after holding the driver hostage at gunpoint. They then flee with the vehicle, pushing the driver out at a secluded place.
The gangs which use sharp weapons lift vehicles almost in the same way.
But the gangs which do not use arms lift vehicles after overpowering the driver and tying him up. Sometimes they even kill the driver.
Some other gangs lift the vehicles after making the drivers unconscious by giving him soft drinks or tea mixed with strong sedatives.
Another gang used to enter the garage of an apartment building at the dead of night, hold the security guards hostage at gunpoint and then lift the targeted vehicles or parts of the vehicles.
After lifting the vehicle, the gangsters make duplicate documents for it with the help of a section of employees of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, and then sell the vehicles at much cheaper prices. Sometimes they sell the vehicles through car showrooms. The organised gangs have separate teams — one engaged in lifting vehicles, another for making false documents and another for selling vehicles by contacting possible buyers.
Mokhlesur Rahman said that former drivers of vehicles were found involved in most cases of carlifting by unorganised gangs.
The drivers, who lost their jobs for many reasons or gave them up, used to make duplicate keys while in service and steal the vehicle when it was parked and later extort money from the vehicle’s owner before returning it.
Mokhlesur said that they had had arrested a number of carjackers during the 7-month period but many of them came out of jail on bail.
‘We also kept an eye on the carjackers who came out of jail so that they couldn’t commit such crimes again, but unfortunately we cannot watch them round the clock due to shortage of manpower,’ he said.
‘We also asked vehicles’ owners to collect detailed information and also verify it before appointing drivers,’ he added.
Admitting that incidents of carjacking had increased in number, the additional deputy commissioner of the DMP’s media and community service, Walid Hossain, said that they had launched an awareness programme.
‘Our programmes have been telecast and broadcast in the electronic media and published in the print media. We have also distributed booklets to people so that they became alert against carjackers,’ he said.
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