Excruciating extortion
Traders helpless as lawmen can’t protect them
Courtesy New Age 12/9/09
Arif Newaz Farazi and FM Masum
Extortion continues in full swing in the transport and business sectors ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, frustrating various measures taken by the law enforcing agencies, according to owners of commercial vehicles and businessmen.
Sources said the extortionists, euphemistically called ‘toll collectors’, have been active in industrial and business establishments, shopping malls, bus terminals and the construction and real estate sectors in the capital.
Sources in the intelligence agencies said that as soon as the elected government came to power, a large number of self-exiled and wanted criminals, many of them patronised by influential political leaders, have returned to their turfs. The helpless city-dwellers can do nothing if they fall prey to the gangsters across the city.
Several hundred incidents of extortion occur in the city everyday, although most of the cases are not reported to the police for fear of reprisal by the criminals.
Thugs shot dead Mohammad Waliullah, 45, owner of Liton Furniture at Bhasantek Baganbari in Kafrul on Friday for his refusal to pay them toll.
Liton, son of the victim, said that his father was killed because he informed RAB about the activities of the extortionists.
In another incident, traders at
Expressing concern over the situation, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner AKM Shahidul Huq told New Age, ‘We always go into instant action as soon as we are informed of any extortion attempt…Some listed criminals staying abroad often demand money through their local henchmen and we try to take legal action against them.’
Transport owners and employees alleged that they have to pay money regularly to extortionists at different spots on the highway, and the traffic police and highway police also take their share.
‘All the long-route buses have to pay tolls to different groups at the bus terminals, because we cannot ply our vehicles without giving money to them. Besides, the police also regularly take bribes from owners of long-route vehicles,’ alleged a bus owner.
‘In a bid to avoid the extortionists we don’t even sit in our offices. Extortionists frequently visit our offices and make telephone calls asking for money,’ a businessman of Phulbaria told New Age.
At a press briefing on August 31, Inspector General of Police Nur Muhammad told newsmen, ‘There is extortion on the highways and some of the 1.25 lakh policemen may be involved in it. We have directed all police officers concerned to take immediate measures to stop all kinds of extortion, including political extortion.’
The IGP warned the police officers that stern action would be taken if they fail to do so.
‘Earlier we paid money at the terminals but now we have to pay at different spots to people who collect money in the name of several associations,’ a transport worker of Druti Paribahan, which plies the Dhaka-Barisal route, told New Age at the Gabtoli inter-district bus terminal.
He also said the extortionists collect money from the Dhaka-bound buses in the early morning as they find the time suitable to do so.
Saiful Islam, a manager of the Gulistan inter-city bus terminal, told New Age, ‘The management has engaged me only to deal with the police sergeants and patrol inspectors, and we pay them between Tk 500 and Tk 3,000 each on a weekly or monthly basis.’
According to the intelligence agency sources, extortion is not going on only in the transport sector — all kinds of businessmen, from owners of luxurious shopping complexes to roadside vendors, have to pay money on a daily basis.
More than 200 traders, especially owners of several shopping complexes in Mirpur, Shah Ali, Pallabi, Darus Salam and Kafrul, have filed 200 general diaries against the notorious Shahadat-Khorshed gang and Dakat Shahid gang for extortion with the police stations in Mirpur, Sutrapur, Lalbagh, Kotwali and Hajaribagh in Old Dhaka.
‘Each shop owner has paid a lump sum of Tk 5,000 to our association… The money will go to crime bosses staying in India before Eid as lives of the association leaders have been threatened if they fail to pay the money demanded over mobile phone,’ Sobhan Chowdhury, a shop owner of Mouchak Market, told New Age.
President of the Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners Association, M Helal Uddin Helal, told New Age, ‘Silent extortion through SMS and cellular phones is widespread, and we have to pay since the law enforcers have failed to protect us from the extortionists.’
The Director General of the Rapid Action Battalion, Hasan Mahmud Khandakar, told New Age, ‘We can’t say that extortions have been stopped but we are trying to curb them as much as possible.’
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