LISTED extortionists have become active again in the capital and on its outskirts demanding tolls from individuals and businesses. News reports in an English daily quoting members of Dhaka city law enforcing agencies on Sunday said extortion mainly by using letters and phone calls have flared up again. Terror groups demanded a huge amount of money from businessmen, garment owners and influential persons prior to Pahela Baishakh festivities in a bid to make money on the occasion making life miserable for the victims. The report said though most top terrorists are on the run, people using fake voices or identities demanded a huge amount of money from them by giving them threats of death or abduction if they fail to pay them. As we see, public safety is at its worst in the city and around it and we can’t understand why the law enforcing agencies are failing to break the criminal networks. It is rather a shame that terrorist gangs are hidden to our well clad and well equipped law enforcing personnel. News reports said, on Saturday last criminals sent a handwritten letter to a former Jatiya Party lawmaker, HM Golam Reza of Satkhira-4, demanding Tk 50 lakh from him. They left a sweetmeat packet containing the letter along with burial cloth and a cocktail just in front of his Shenpara Parbota residence in Mirpur. Golam Reza is passing a terrible time even though he informed the local police about the matter in a General Diary (GD). In the letter the extortionists had said four of their members are in jail and they needed huge amounts of money for their release. He will face dire consequences if he fails to pay the money, the unnamed criminals warned. Similarly the report quoted a trader at the city’s Gopibagh area as saying that local terrorists had demanded Tk 2 lakh from him and threatened to shoot him unless their demand is met. Later he negotiated a ransom of Tk 50,000 to buy his safety. Another caller at Uttara recently identified himself as Subrato Bain, who is a dreaded terrorist and demanded Tk 2 lakh from a resident with a similar threat . The report quoted Joint Commissioner of Dhaka City Detective Branch (DB) police as saying that listed terrorists are in fact staying outside the country and some local outfits are using their names and identities to collect the illegal tolls. But the fact is that like the desperate city dwellers who receive threats, we also wonder as to how we can alert our law enforcers and demand drastic action to destroy the network of the terrorists and extortionists. No one will believe that police and detective branch people don’t know the extortionists and the people who shelter them. There are also allegations that a section of the out law enforcers may have a close nexus with many of the under world groups and this is because they are running extortions and killings almost unabated. Surprisingly, the extortionists have made a strong case for the tolls saying they need the money to buy the release of their fellow extortionists and it means the money is meant for criminals who are in jail and may be released . But as citizens, people have no place to go but to renew the plea that the terrorists network must be destroyed and save public life. We ask the law enforcers to be more concerned about public safety.
