The youth gang has once again taken a terrible form in Rajshahi metropolis. Apart from murder, terrorist attacks, extortion, selling and taking drugs, they are involved in crimes like theft and robbery. They are harassing and sexually harassing school and college students. A couple of years ago, the cyber crime unit of the police created a database of more than five hundred members of juvenile gangs in the metropolis. However, due to the lack of police surveillance, various youth gangs that have formed based on the area are once again roaming the city. New groups are also being created. Robberies and stabbings are a daily occurrence. They are even openly raising their arms in groups and doing a happy dance. Rajshahi has become more dangerous especially at dawn and night because of juvenile robbers. This created a new fear among the city dwellers. The police arrested seven members of the youth gang along with a large quantity of indigenous weapons in various parts of the city from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.
According to the complaint of the victimized city dwellers, these teenagers came down on the road in groups of motorcycles in the evening. Pedestrians often pull women by their sari-veils. He also robs if he gets a chance. Not only that, each group has different types of weapons.
Recently in the Gangpara area of Shah Makhdoom police station of the city, the members of the juvenile gang attacked and seriously injured a teenager named Arafat and raised their arms and danced. In the video, which has gone viral, some members of Kishore Gaya can be seen dancing with Chinese axes, knives, ram-da and other indigenous weapons to the rhythm of the music. After the video went viral on the internet on Tuesday night, there was a storm of criticism on social media. After that, the police entered the field to arrest them.
RMP’s Shah Makhdoom Thana police arrested seven teenagers from different areas of the city in an overnight operation on Tuesday. The arrested are Rafiqul Islam Samrat (21), Najmus Saqib Abir (21), Mohaiminul Sheikh (20), Jisad (20), Sohail Rana (21), Monirul Islam Apurva (22) and Maruf Hossain (21). All of them are residents of Shah Makhdoom police station area of the city. In the preliminary interrogation of the police, they said that they were involved in various crimes. This terrible group has been committing various crimes in Rajshahi’s Amchattar and surrounding roads.
It has been found that in Rajshahi, juvenile gangs have been formed under different names in different wards and neighborhoods. Among them, the ‘Ten Star Boy’ group is more popular. On May 2, four youths named Siam, Akash, Sohan and Mahim were seriously injured by the members of this group in Chhota Bangram Paschim Para area of Chandrima police station. In this incident, a complaint was lodged at Chandrima police station against Prem (20), Shishir (18), Babu (19) and Eman (21) of Assam Colony Rob Mor area.
Locals said that youth gang members are involved in the area from dubbing to pole wire theft, extortion and robbery. Apart from this, school girls are being molested, creating a reign of terror in the area. Being a victim of their attacks, many people do not want to open their mouths out of fear. Most of them are drug addicts at this age. Many took pictures with weapons and uploaded them on Facebook. It is alleged that most of them are being controlled by ward level leaders of Awami League and affiliated organizations at various levels. Some ward councilors of Rasik are also under their patronage. The members of these groups are mostly castaways from lower and middle class families.
It is known that the night city has become dangerous. After 11 o’clock at night, they started to meet at various roads and junctions. They are robbing hostages at gunpoint whenever they get a chance. Passengers coming from Dhaka by train or bus in the early morning are the main targets of the robberies. On the night of October 29, two college students, Kaushik and Abhijit, were caught by armed robbers in the Rajshahi railway station area. Both of them were admitted to the hospital after being injured by the sharp weapons of the robbers. Kaushik’s chest required 50 stitches and Abhijit’s chest 30 stitches.
Nishad Akram Rinku, a third-year student of statistics department of Rajshahi College, was seriously injured by robbers in Kadirganj area of the city during the day on September 17. He died on October 3 after fighting death for 16 days. On April 7 this year, a teenager named Anik (19) lost control of his motorcycle in Dabatala area of the city and was killed on the spot. In this incident, his another associate Maruf Hossain (18) was seriously injured.
Eminent educationist Professor Habibur Rahman has expressed concern over the increase in juvenile crime. He said, 16-22 years old are reckless members of this gang. At this age they want to show heroism. That is why he is involved in various crimes. Due to social degradation they are not giving importance to formal education. It is the responsibility of administration and public representatives to bring them back on track.
Vijay Basak, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime and Operations) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police has admitted that there has been an upsurge of juvenile gangs in recent times. He said that a digital database of about 500 members of the youth gang was created a year and a half ago. But now this number is at least 650. New groups are being formed in different areas. However, they are under strict police surveillance. No one can get away with any crime. There is nothing to panic about.
