Highway robbery

Since when have highway robberies stopped making news? No, such crimes committed at dead of night on highways do not go altogether unreported. If the bandits use lethal weapons or firearms to leave a few passengers dead or wounded, the incident captures news headlines. But if the dacoits can decamp with looted valuables without committing violence, such incidents are rarely reported nowadays. The paradigm shift in the perception is a direct result of apathy grown out of a gradual slide in law and order situation. Three highway robberies were committed within three days between Friday and Sunday on the highway segment between Madhukhali and Kamarkhali but the latest one made news because not only did the robbers rob passengers of a Satkhira-bound bus near Aruakandi under Madhukhali but also caused severe axe-inflicted injury to 10 of them. The tragedy was moreover covered in graphic details, courtesy of a newsman who happened to travel immediately after the robbery committed by felling a tree on the highway to obstruct the bus's movement. Even the officer-in-charge (OC) of Mahukhali was unaware that two more robberies were committed on the same segment of the highway in three days.

What is intriguing is that the highway concerned is not without police patrol. The Karimpur police outpost is supposed to keep vigilance over a stretch of 54 kilometres off the area known for repeated bus dacoities. This portion of the highway running through woodlands is within just two kilometres of the Madhukhali police station, complains the OC of the outpost. Evidently, the area is vulnerable to attacks from robbers and no one really wants to take the responsibility of the security of highway passengers there. The police officers are shifting the blame on each other for not doing enough to maintain security of that portion of the highway. True, patrolling the entire stretches of roads and highways in the country is a daunting task, particularly with the current set-up of patrol contingents, vehicles and other facilities. But when a particular portion of roads or highways is identified for repeated attacks from robbers, security there can be bolstered in order to avoid more such tragedies.

The Madhukhali segment of road is not the only one to have repeatedly come under similar attacks, there are more such hot spots on the Dhaka-Rajshahi, Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka- Chittagong highways. Nightly visitations by robbers on these highways do not take place every other day. But those cannot be ruled out. The dacoits moreover surprise everyone by suddenly carrying attacks in a manner unthinkable. A number of drivers of good-laden trucks or covered vans on Dhaka-Chittagong highway were murdered following raid on their vehicles. In certain other cases, such trucks had been left abandoned after the consignments, either imported or meant for export, were taken away. Clearly, the threat is both to life and economy of the country. Business suffers if transportation is snapped all on a sudden midway to the port. This calls for raising the strength of the patrolling fleet. After all, safe and secured transportation of goods and journey of people are a prerequisite for bolstering business and economy.