Police Draw Up Coordinated Nationwide Drive Against Teen Gangs, Targeting Leaders and Patrons Too

Police are drawing up a coordinated nationwide operation to stop teenage gang violence, extortion, mugging and drug-related crime. The initiative aims to identify not only gang members but also their organisers, financiers and those who assist their crimes.

All police units have been instructed to prepare and update lists of active gangs, their members and patrons. Crime-prone areas are to be identified, after which detailed plans for coordinated drives will be made.

Additional Inspector General of Police (Crime and Operations) Md Sayedur Rahman said every police unit has been directed to collect information on active teen gangs and their organisers and patrons. Once the lists arrive, a detailed operational plan for drives in crime-prone areas will be prepared in consultation with senior officers.

He said there is no plan to list anyone merely on suspicion if they have no criminal record. Action will be taken based on the activities of those who threaten public safety and break the law.

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

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

Anti-gang drives have already intensified in several districts. In Cumilla, a special operation by the district's 18 police stations and detective police began on 23 September; police reported detaining more than 2,000 people in the first five phases. Of 370 people detained on 2 October, 279 were released to their families on bond, while legal action was to follow verification of allegations against the rest. Drives there continued to detain hundreds more, including 252 people in a single night on 9 October.

In Noakhali, police detained 145 people from nine police station areas in a 24-hour drive up to the morning of 12 October. In Lakshmipur, 547 people were detained over three days of continuous drives across six police stations in the same period. Police said the detainees' identities, ages and links to crime would be verified before further action.

Not everyone detained in these drives can be concluded to be a gang member or involved in crime — police themselves say action will follow verification of allegations.

Police data on the real number of teen gangs and their members is inconsistent. Earlier headquarters figures listed 307 gangs nationwide — 93 in the Chattogram metropolitan area, 78 in Dhaka Range, 54 in Chattogram Range and 41 on the DMP list. Because units compile lists in their own way, officials say such discrepancies can persist, making a unified, regularly updated national database important.

According to earlier headquarters statistics, in the first nine months of this year 270 members of 48 gangs faced 69 criminal cases, 21 of them arising from clashes among the gangs themselves. Those 48 gangs had 577 listed members.

Police are stressing adherence to legal process in the anti-gang drives. Additional IGP Sayedur Rahman said firmness is needed to curb juvenile crime but it must not descend into cruelty, and that arresting juveniles under the Special Powers Act would not be good practice. Police inquiries are also examining whether politically influential figures or other quarters are giving the gangs money, shelter or protection.