Police Draw Up Nationwide Coordinated Operation Against Kishor Gangs, With Leaders and Patrons on the List

Police are drawing up a plan for a coordinated nationwide operation to stop the violence, extortion, snatching and drug-related crimes of kishor gangs, or juvenile gangs. The initiative aims to identify not only gang members but also their organisers, financiers and those who assist them in crime.

Various police units have been instructed to prepare and update lists of active gangs, their members and their patrons. Crime-prone areas are to be identified, after which coordinated operations will be carried out in those areas.

Additional Inspector General of Police (Crime and Operations) Md Sayedur Rahman said all police units have been instructed to collect information on active kishor gangs and their organisers and patrons. Once the lists are received, a detailed work plan for operations in crime-prone areas will be prepared in consultation with senior officials.

He said there is no plan to list anyone solely on suspicion if they have no criminal record. Action will be taken on the basis of the activities of those who are creating threats to public safety and breaking the law.

The Special Branch, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and the Special Response Battalion are among the various police units working under this initiative.

A preliminary verification by the Special Response Battalion (SRB) has produced information about a draft list of 1,333 kishor gangs, 213 gang leaders or organisers and 27 patrons. The list is being verified at the divisional level before being sent to police headquarters, according to concerned sources.

In Cumilla, a special operation coordinated by the district police's 18 police stations and the detective police began on 23 September. Police reported detaining more than 2,000 people in the first five rounds. Of 370 people detained in the 2 October operation, 279 were released into their families' custody on bond, and legal action was to be taken against the rest after verifying the allegations and related information. Hundreds more were detained in later operations there; on the night of 9 October, another 252 people were reported detained.

In Noakhali, police detained 145 people from nine police station areas in a 24-hour operation up to the morning of 12 October. In the same period, a three-day continuous operation across six police stations in Lakshmipur detained a total of 547 people. The concerned police said further action would be taken after verifying the detainees' identities, ages and involvement in crime.

However, it cannot be concluded that everyone detained in these operations is a gang member or involved in crime. Police have also said action will be taken on the basis of allegations after verification.

There are inconsistencies in the police database on the actual number of kishor gangs and their members. According to earlier police headquarters data, there were 307 kishor gangs nationwide, including 93 in the Chattogram metropolitan area, 78 in the Dhaka range and 54 in the Chattogram range, while the DMP list had 41 gangs. These figures differ from the SRB's recent draft list; if the method of preparing the lists, the time of data collection and the definition of a gang are not the same, such differences in numbers can remain.

According to earlier police headquarters statistics, in the first nine months of this year, 270 members of 48 gangs faced 69 criminal cases. Of those, 21 cases arose from clashes among the gangs themselves. The listed membership of those 48 gangs was 577.

Police are emphasising following legal process in the anti-gang operations. Additional IGP Sayedur Rahman said firmness is needed to curb juvenile crime, but it should not reach the level of cruelty. He also commented that steps such as arresting juveniles under the Special Powers Act would not be a good practice. Police inquiries are also giving importance to examining whether politically influential persons or other quarters are giving the gangs money, shelter or protection.

Professor Md Umar Faruk of the Department of Criminology and Police Science at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University believes that detaining members alone will not bring a long-term solution; the financiers, organisers and influential patrons behind the gangs must also be brought under the law. In his view, many juveniles linked to gangs remain outside family supervision and some become involved in drug addiction or various social crises; for them, regular monitoring, counselling, family involvement and necessary care must be ensured.