Joynal Abedin Khan :Places in and around the flyovers in the capital have become safe haven of the criminals where incidents of snatching, kidnapping and other organized crimes are being committing frequently in the recent days. Not only that, intoxicating drug selling to retail consumers through mobile phone contacts and prostitution business are also common incidents here due to lack of vigilance of law enforcers. Of the city flyovers, the Khilgaon, Mohakhali, Jatrabari, Babubazar and Kuril are highly vulnerable to vehicles theft and women assult.Local residents said that the spaces of under the flyovers are also overrun by vagabonds and drug-addicts since the past one year. These criminal elements indulge in various activities at night as a result of which women residents and children feel insecure to cross the area, they claimed.A motorcyclist, Ashutosh Sarker, said: “For security reason, motorbikers hardly pass through the Khilgaon flyover, especially after dusk.”Mugging and other criminal activities are reportedly rampant under the Kuril flyover and its surroundings, alleged a resident of Khilkhet area.On June 5, muggers allegedly snatched Tk two lakh from a bKash agent at Khilgaon intersection under the flyover in the area.Meanwhile, a gang of muggers, numbering three, intercepted Ratan Mia near his residence just 100 yards from Kuril Flyover and stabbed him indiscriminately and snatched Tk 80,000 from him on May 30.Besides, a minor girl was raped allegedly by a juice vendor under Babubazar Flyover in old Dhaka on June 14. According to the family members of the victim, their neighbour Habibur Rahman, 30, a juice vendor, took her to his residence offering juice on the day.A schoolboy kidnapped from city’s Jartabari Flyover area on May 12, was rescued in Bagerhat district town after five days, said Jatrabari OC Abni Sankar Kar.A visit to Kuril Flyover by this correspondent last Tuesday afternoon found a number of addicts taking marijuana and heroin. There were also several sex workers looking for the customers. A drug trader known as yaba queen of Nazimudin Road was seen running brisk business of yaba in and around Babubazar Flyover. Phensidyl business also goes on unabated in and around the Mohakhali flyover, sources said.A shopkeeper near Jatrabari Flyover, on condition of anonymity, said law enforcers do not pay any heed to the crimes despite repeated requests.Joint Commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Monirul Islam said that several teams are out to catch the criminals those are running business on the vflyovers.”We want to free the city the flyovers from the curse of drugs and other crimes,” the DB official said.Abu Yousuf, Assistant Commissioner (Traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said that spaces below the flyovers were prone to crime. He said that most of these spaces were not properly lighted and so, these have turned into dens of petty robbers. “The subways under flyovers, connecting service roads, were also vulnerable,” he said.
