Joynal Abedin Khan :
People in the capital are increasingly falling prey to a new type of crime called ‘hugging mugging’.
Rickshaw passengers are mostly vulnerable to this new crime.
In the latest type of this crime, the victims are greeted on the street by a seemingly friendly stranger who is a mugger and backed by some other mugger from distance. As soon as the rickshaw came to a halt, the mugger speedy braces the man and hugs him. In the meantime, he puts hands into the man’s pockets and snatches everything before he could even grasp.
Abdur Rahim, a victim of the crime, narrated his misfortune to The New Nation yesterday saying, “I was passing the Malibagh rail crossing riding a rickshaw on Wednesday evening. All of a sudden, another rickshaw came beside me and the passenger greets me saying how you are brother? I was confused by the call and tried to recognize him. The stranger said you may not recognize me, I am your neighbour. By this time, he halted his rickshaw and asked my rickshaw puller to halt.”
As both rickshaws halted side by side, the man got down. As I also got down from the rickshaw he hugged me like an old friend, he said.
As I was sensing something wrong, he whispered, don’t shout, I have a gun. Give me your money bag and other valuables quickly. I responded and handed over my parse and mobile phone to him.
“Later, I requested the mugger to get back the mobile phone and he returned it. This was happened in a jiffy, leaving me at a fix what to do,” said the victim. Many looked the incident, but nobody came to the scene. I had Tk 5,000 in the money bag.
Abdur Rahim, a Supreme Court lawyer, said that the incident took place in between Khilgaon rail crossing and Abul Hotel on the way to his Rampura residence at 7:15pm.
Even, the ‘hugging mugging’ is taking place in broad daylight making people helpless.
“I was caught by the daytime muggers who snatched Tk 40,000 adopting the ‘hugging mugging’ method. I withdrawn the cash from a private bank branch located at Dainik Bangla Intersection,” an employee of a private organisation told The New Nation yesterday, preferring anonymity. According to him, the incident took place while I was crossing the road stretching from Dainik Bangla Intersection to Fakirapol water tank by a rickshaw. As I reached in front of Fakirapol water tank, two men riding another rickshaw intercepted my rickshaw after greeting that how are you elder brother.
“They asked me to stop saying that they had to talk with me. At one stage they came closer after getting down from their rickshaw. Later, they embraced me from both sides entering their hands into my pockets and took away the cash.
One of the muggers put one of my hands on his pocket and said here is a gun. Don’t shout, many of our associates are following you. They ordered me to ride the rickshaw again saying don’t look back. If do so, we will open fire,” he narrated.
Later, I came to the Paltan Police Station and filed a written complaint in this regard. “Such street crime is on the rise in recent times but Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is struggling to contain this,” said the victim, adding that incidents of snatching have creased due mainly to inadequate police patrol.
Many said the new style mugging have been taking place every day. But police stations in the city have no actual record of such incidents, as most of the victims do not go to police fearing harassment.
It is believed that an organised gang is behind the crime wave which occurs mainly the hours between 7:00pm and 10:00pm at various spots in the capital. The spots are located at Kamalapur, Fakirapool, Khilgaon, Cantonment and airport rail stations, Gabtali, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminals, Sadar Gaht, Dhaka University campus, Ramna Park, Dhanmondi, and Hatirjheel lakes, Chandrima Udayan, Shanir Akhara, Bijoy Sarani, Tejgaon, Moghbazar, Bongshal and Dholaipar. Admitting the new style mugging incidents, Masudur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of DMP told The New Nation yesterday that they have already identified the crime spots and beefed up police petrol there. “Police also devised plan to tame the crime. Police arrested 36 snatchers from separate spots in the city after conducting raids in September,” he added.
The DMP official, however, claimed that the number of mugging incidents has decreased in the city following the enhanced petrol.
But his claim could not be justified as DMP website has contained the reported mugging cases upto July this year. It is yet to compile the September’s data of such crimes.
