Sheikh Mohammad Aslam nicknamed Sweden Aslam, one of Dhaka's top underworld gangsters who mutually divided the city into zones following turf wars, was released from high-security Kashimpur jail on September 3 last. His release came after 27 years in prison. The gang leader was sentenced to imprisonment on several charges of murder and other criminal acts. When he was interned, he was 35 and at the time of his release, he was 62.
The late 80s and 90s saw the rise of criminal gangs in the capital city. No, these gangs did not commit petty crimes, they were notorious for organised crimes. They started with extortion from traders and gradually extended their long hands to demand large amount from moneyed people and big businesses. At some point, they routinely received fixed amounts from their target groups. Like the Italian-American mafia in the United States of America, they built their empire in designated city areas where no construction or public work, industries or factories, big events such as concert and fairs and even garbage collection could be operated without paying extortion money.
Thus the rise of dreaded gang leaders like Sweden Aslam, Kala Jahangir, Picchi Hannan, Killer Abbas, Tofayel Ahmed Joseph, Subrata Bain and many others in the last decade of the past millennium made the city a den of rapacious crimes. This prompted the creation of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) because the conventional police force proved not good enough to deal with the top terrors. This is how cross-fires became so common in order to eliminate the underworld gangs. Many of the gang leaders were killed in cross-fires and some had to flee the country and a few others like Sweden Aslam were put behind bars.
Now, some of those terrors are out of prison on bail. The question is, if they are reformed characters or have already gone back to their old ways. Reportedly, some of the terrors even during their stay in jail or refuge in a neighbouring country duly received their shares of booty from their gang members who continued to extort albeit on a limited scale. Now that some of them as well as militants are either released or themselves stormed out of prison during the July-August uprising, its implication for law and order is certainly a subject of in-depth analysis. A top functionary of home security once made a statement that they are under watch. That's all and no further official version on the issue was available.
The fact is, over the past decade or so, the void left by the top terrors was somewhat filled by teenage gangs. Although they are called teenage criminals, many of the members of several groups are aged between 20-25. They are adult enough to take the baton of crime from their predecessors. Also teenagers do not stay at the stage they are, they grow up to reach adulthood. But because old habits die hard, they are unlikely to change their criminal way of life.
There are 237 violent teenage gangs in the country with the highest number of 127 in Dhaka city followed by 57 in Chattogram, according to a report carried in a leading Bangla contemporary. In the capital city, these gangs were involved in killing 25 people in 2023. Clearly, they are following in the footsteps of their elder brothers in the act of homicide. Now what if the released gang leaders act as their mentors! Collaboration between these two can be a bone-chilling prospect for the city's inhabitants. Earlier it was reported that the teenage gangs received patronage from some of the local leaders of the ruling party of the deposed government.
Now that law and order is quite fragile because of the inhibition the police still suffer from, the criminals of all kinds are on the prowl. Killing, mugging and robbing have already shown a rising trend. If the organised criminals join hands together, this city along with other large cities will turn into veritable hells. Before that happens, the law enforcement forces, particularly the RAB should pre-empt any such initiative in order to frustrate the gangs harbouring any idea of reigning supreme.
So far as the genuine teenage members of such gangs are concerned, they deserve to be brought under a correction or reform programme. But this country's prisons are far from following any incarceration system. International standard correctional system is a far cry in this country but measures should be taken to turn prisons phase by phase into such facilities. Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany boast the best correctional system in the world. Bangladesh can learn from those countries, particularly Norway, how to go about turning the prison system into facilities that value rehabilitation, humane condition and social integration.
© 2025 - All Rights with The Financial Express
