WHILE muggers are establishing a reign of terror by extorting ordinary people, police are allegedly found busy in abducting people. Both the groups, supposed to be hostile, are truly on the same platform in making life of the masses miserable. The city dwellers are living in panic while seeing muggers audaciously snatching money from people in broad daylight despite the activity of law enforcement agencies in the country.
As mobile banking service is becoming popular due to the unique features of instant cash in and out, the security vulnerability may discourage the service providers. Mugging in broad daylight indicates that the police are not working properly and muggers are more equipped and skilled than the police. Though metropolitan police is supposed to be alert at every corner of the city, no policemen seem to be around the two mugging spots of Mirpur and Khilgaon, leaving scope to the people to think of an unholy nexus.
Dailies said on Sunday that muggers shot two people and took away Tk 1.10 crore in the city’s Mirpur and Khilgaon areas. Equipped with firearms and carrying backpacks, eight muggers intercepted four employees of E-zone, a bKash service providing agency, and took away Tk 90 lakh. The employees, escorted by four others on two motorbikes, were travelling in a car to deposit the money in two local banks. The bKash agents did not inform the police before carrying the huge amount, although there are instructions from police headquarters to take police protection before carrying big amounts of money. In Khilgaon, a gang of three to four muggers intercepted a businessman when he was going to a local bank by rickshaw to deposit the money and snatched Tk 20 lakh.
The mobile banking system has become risky as there have been an increasing number of incidents of mugging taking place and banking agents, especially, bKash agents have become one of the main targets of mugging. The situation has become alarming although police headquarters earlier in July instructed all officials to curb such crimes. In mid September, miscreants took away Tk 30 lakh by shooting a bKash agent at Tongi in Gazipur. Muggers on November snatched away over Tk 10 lakh from a bKash representative in the capital’s Jatrabari.
The security system in the city is not working due to the reluctance of the police in maintaining law and order and a non-operational security apparatus. Interestingly, all the 155 CCTV cameras fixed in important localities and road junctions of the capital are nonfunctional. Police are unaware about the non functional surveillance equipment and also about their duties in maintaining law and order. To avoid future mugging and curve crimes, the m-banking service provider should be careful and the government should form a professional, skilled and accountable police force.
