Reza Mahmud :
The incidents of snatching are occurring almost everyday in the city. Most of the snatchers like to do their evil acts in the early morning or in the late night.
Nowadays the hijackers are using motorcars and motorbikes in snatching.
Wahida Nasreen and her husband Kashim Haydar became victims of a snatching incident a few days ago at Shahbagh intersection in the early morning.
Wahida Nasreen said, “We were going towards Arambagh by a rickshaw to get a Cox’s Bazar bound bus in the early morning. When we crossed the Shahbag intersection a private car sharply cross us on the road beside Ramna Park and some one from inside the vehicle snatched my handbag suddenly.”
She said that there were Tk 12,000, some ornaments and two costly mobile handsets in the bag. But they did not file any case with the police as they are reluctant about the outcome.
Tahmid Ahsan, a media worker, also became victim of hijackers near the Purana Paltan intersection recently.
He said the hijackers, numbering three to four, waylaid him by a private car when he was riding on a new model Honda motorcycle in late night on way home after his office duty.
The private car of the hijackers pushed him down on the Topkhana road. The hijackers chased him with sharp weapons as Tahmid fell on the street with his motorbike.
The media worker then fled from the spot keeping his bike there. The hijackers took the bike away.
Tahmid filed a case with the police but he is yet get back his the bike.
In another case, a private sector official Raja Ahmed met with a snatching incident in Nayapaltan area in early morning recently after his return from Cox’s Bazar with his wife.
When they were going by a rickshaw after getting off from the bus, a motorbike sharply crossed their rickshaw and tried to snatch his wife’s vanity bag but failed. But his wife got panicked seriously at the sudden attack.
In another incident, Momena Aktar and her brother Abdul Aziz became victims of a criminal gang at Gabtoli bus terminal after getting off a bus from Jessore.
Abdul Aziz fell senseless after taking a betel leaf from an unknown person at the bus terminal. When his sister Momena became busy with her brother the criminals then got disappearance taking Aziz and Momena’s luggage, which contains two mobile handsets and several thousand takas.
Momena said that they have come to one of their relatives residence in the city to resolve a family property dispute.
Although the city dwellers are becoming victims of snatching incidents, the police said the numbers of snatching are decreasing.
According to police data, 256 snatching cases were filed in 2014, 176 in 2015, while it was 150 in 2016.
By the October this year, the numbers of such cases were 142.
However, the human rights activists do not agree with the cops regarding the decrease of such incidents.
“In most of the incidents, the police were seen reluctant to file cases. On the other hand, the victims also avoid to file cases due to their reluctance about police’s behaviour,” Advocate Ahsan Habib, a lawyer of Supreme Court and also a human rights activist told The New Nation.
Ahsan Habib said that police should encourage people to go them in case of such incidents.
