Crime
Baridhara shooting: New details emerge on police constable killing colleague
Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun announced a thorough investigation into the shooting incident where a police constable killed his colleague in the Baridhara diplomatic zone. The probe will rely on CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, he said.
The police chief addressed the media late last night at the scene, in front of the Palestine Embassy, where the tragic event unfolded.
Eyewitnesses reported a heated argument between police constables Monirul Islam and Kawsar Ali after 11 pm. During the altercation, Kawsar began firing indiscriminately, hitting Monirul in the chest and killing him instantly. Sajjad Sheikh, a driver for the Japan Embassy who was nearby, was also injured in the shooting.
Policeman gunned down by fellow cop in Baridhara; pedestrian injured
The incident caused widespread panic, leading to road closures in the surrounding area. It took special police forces, including SWAT and the Detective Branch, about half an hour to disarm and apprehend Kawsar.
Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, along with senior police officials, quickly arrived at the scene to manage the situation.
A security guard, speaking on condition of anonymity, recounted that after shooting Monirul, Kawsar stood at the main gate of the Palestine Embassy. When questioned about Monirul’s lifeless body, Kawsar reportedly claimed he was "pretending."
Kawsar then moved to the road opposite the embassy gate, where security personnel finally apprehended him. Witnesses reported hearing five to six rounds of gunfire during the incident.
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Sajjad Sheikh, the injured driver, was admitted to United Hospital, according to his family.
3 months ago
Anar's family may go to India soon to provide DNA samples: DB chief
Jhenaidah Member of Parliament Anwarul Azim Anar's family members will go to India shortly to provide DNA samples in connection with his murder.
If Indian CID calls on them to go to India, it will be assumed that they (CID) would call them for a DNA test.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner and chief of Detective Branch (DB) Mohammad Harunur Rashid revealed this while talking to reporters at DB office on Saturday.
He said MP's family members will go to India very soon for DNA test.
Read more: Anar Murder: Nepal police arrested suspects Siam, Jihad, says DB chief
"We have already talked to Kolkata CID. Apart from this, the Indian investigating officers have also taken the names and mobile numbers of the family members. They will call soon. If they call, assume they will call them for a DNA test," the DB chief said.
Replying to another question, Harun said they have detained a local Awami League leader of Jhenaidah in connection with the killing of MP Anar.
"He is being interrogated. Many important matters are being asked. However, he has not yet been officially shown as arrested. If any involvement is found during the interrogation, he will be shown as arrested," Harun said.
Read more: DB chief leading team in Nepal to investigate MP Anar murder
3 months ago
Crackdown on teen gangs in Dhaka: 35 including key leaders arrested
In a decisive move against gang violence, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have apprehended 35 operatives including two masterminds behind several notorious teen gangs, across key areas of Dhaka. From March 11 to 18, focused operations spanned Mohammadpur, Adabar, Nakhalpara, Tejgaon, and surrounding locales, marking a significant stride in curbing urban crime.
The arrest announcement came today via a statement from RAB-2’s Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP-media), Shihab Karim. Among those detained were Md. Akash, Md. Farid, and Md. Imam Hossain, alongside figures like Md. Arif alias Rasel Mia and Md. Mosharraf, pinpointing a wide net cast by law enforcement to dismantle these criminal networks.
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This crackdown follows reports of rampant robbery, mugging, and extortion, leading to a targeted response from several RAB teams in areas under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) jurisdiction. Notably, operations led to the capture of leaders from the FDC Munna and King Jamal Group, including Md Ismail alias “FDC Munna” and Md Jamal Hossain, as well as heads of the King Mosharraf and Apna Bhai Groups.
Authorities also seized locally-made weapons used in these gangs’ criminal endeavours. The arrests reveal a disturbing trend of violence, snatchings, and extortion, with teen gangs frequently clashing over territory and influence. Preliminary interrogations have unearthed admissions of past crimes and plans for future violence, indicating a deep-rooted issue within Dhaka’s underbelly.
The arrestees engaged in criminal activities under the guise of everyday professions, from transport workers to vegetable vendors, making their operations not only diverse but challenging to dismantle, said the RAB statement, highlighting the deceptive methods employed by these groups to evade law enforcement.
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Following their arrest, the teen gang members have been transferred to various police stations across the DMP area for further legal proceedings, signifying the beginning of a lengthy process to bring these individuals to justice.
6 months ago
Teen gangs in Feni: A growing threat
The sprouting teen gangs have emerged as a major concern in the capital and other cities and towns of the country, and Feni town is no exception.
These misguided teens involved in theft, hijacking, drug abuse, stalking, sexual harassment, and murder, allegedly with the backing of local political leaders and public representatives, are now a new threat to society.
Locals allege that local political leaders patronize the teens to establish dominance, grab properties, and threaten opposition political activists.
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‘Koshai’, ‘Himil’, ‘Shano’, ‘JK’, 'Pintu', and ‘Chakma Javed’ are among the 10 gangs of the district infamous for their crimes that have been extended even to the unions from the district town.
Talking to UNB, some guardians expressed their worries over the dreadful offenses committed by the teen gangs and the future of their children, as the deteriorating social environment due to the gang activities has made it difficult for them to keep their children aloof from their influence.
On Thursday, police arrested three ‘SDK’ group members, including their leader, for their involvement in various crimes, including the trade and buse of drugs, snatching, extortion, stalking, threatening people for extortion, showing arms, and clashing with rival groups.
Preferring anonymity, a SDK group member said,” If the ‘leaders’ need them, they inform the ‘big brother’ who completes the operations involving teen gang members, and they get money in exchange.”
A police official who preferred not to be named said if the teen gang members are arrested, they get phone calls from ‘big brothers’ or ‘leaders’ seeking their release.
School teacher beaten and harassed by police in Natore
7 months ago
FBI announces $20,000 reward for information on Bangladesh-origin man
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of Bangladesh-origin Ruhel Choudhury.
Ruhel has ties to the Hollis, Queens Village, and Jamaica areas of Queens, New York. He may transport and sell used cars, according to the FBI.
Ruhel Choudhury is wanted for his alleged involvement in two kidnappings that occurred on March 27, 2023, and May 11, 2023, in Queens, New York.
Read more: ‘Sexual harassment’: Viqarunnisa teacher lands in jail
He and others allegedly abducted the victims off the street and then robbed, tortured, and drugged them.
One victim was held for ransom and sexually assaulted.
Ruhel allegedly provided and drove the vehicles used to confine and transport the victims to various locations in Queens during the kidnappings.
He also allegedly assaulted and threatened the victims. Ruhel was indicted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, New York, and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest on January 9, 2024, after he was charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of kidnapping conspiracy.
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7 months ago
5 teen gang operators arrested in Dhaka
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested five people who operates teen gangs from Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area on Friday (February 09, 2024).
The arrestees were identified as Zulfiker Ali, 37,a ringleader of the operator of teen gang of Jamalpur, Harun-or Rashid, 38 of Mymensingh, Shamsuddin Bepari, 48 of Bhola, Krishna Chandra Das, 28 of Munshiganj and Suruj Mia, 30 of Mymensingh districts.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-3 conducted a drive in Mohammadia Housing Society and arrested the five people including ringleader Zulfiker who operate two teen gangs ‘Diamond’ and ‘De Dhakka’, on Friday night, said Azhar Hossain, assistant superintendent of police.
Read: Subarnachar gang rape: Another accused arrested
The elite force also seized one foreign made pistol, one magazine, two sharp weapons and seven knives from the possession.
After primary interrogation, police came to know that they had long been involved in engaging drug addicts or teens in different criminal activities including arms and drug business, mugging, extortion, abduction, robbery and land occupation after alluring them of giving money, said Azhar.
The teen members of Zulfiker’s gangs were involved in mugging.
Read: 2 more arrested over rape on JU campus
7 months ago
How genocide officially became a crime, and why South Africa is accusing Israel of committing it
In the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the world united around a now-familiar pledge: Never again.
A key part of that lofty aspiration was the drafting of a convention that codified and committed nations to prevent and punish a new crime, sometimes called the crime of crimes: genocide.
The convention was drawn up in 1948, the year of Israel's creation as a Jewish state. Now that country is being accused at the United Nations' highest court of committing the very crime so deeply woven into its national identity.
The reason the genocide convention exists "is related directly to what the (Nazi) Third Reich attempted to do in eliminating a people, the Jewish people, not only of Germany, but of Eastern Europe, of Russia," said Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute.
Now, in response to Israel's devastating military offensive in Gaza that was triggered by murders and atrocities perpetrated by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, South Africa has gone to the International Court of Justice and accused Israel of genocide. Israel rejects the claim and accuses Pretoria of providing political cover for Hamas.
South Africa also asked the 17-judge panel to make nine urgent orders known as provisional measures. They are aimed at protecting civilians in Gaza while the court considers the legal arguments of both sides. First and foremost is for the court to order Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza."
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On Friday, the court's American president, U.S. judge Joan E. Donoghue, will read out its decision at a public hearing.
Here is more information about the crime of genocide and other cases in the past.
WHAT IS GENOCIDE?
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines the crime as acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such." It lists the acts as killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births; and forcibly transferring children.
The text is repeated in the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, as one of the crimes under its jurisdiction, along with war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. The ICC prosecutes individuals and is separate to the International Court of Justice, which rules in disputes between nations.
In its written filings and at a public hearing earlier this month, South Africa alleged genocidal acts by Israel forces including killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing serious mental and bodily harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions meant to "bring about their physical destruction as a group."
Israel has vehemently taken issue with South Africa's claims, arguing that it is acting in self-defense against what it calls the genocidal threat to its existence posed by Hamas.
HOW DO YOU PROVE GENOCIDE?
As well as establishing one or more of the underlying crimes listed in the convention, the key element of genocide is intent — the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It's tough to prove.
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"The most important thing is that whatever happens is done with the specific intent to destroy a group, so there's no plausible alternative reason why those crimes have been committed," said Marieke de Hoon, an associate professor of international law at the University of Amsterdam.
Said O'Connell: "Can you show that the widespread killing of these people was intended by the government? Or ... was the government waging a war and during that war large numbers of this particular group died, but that was not the intent of the government?"
At public hearings earlier this month and in its detailed written submission to the ICJ, South Africa cited comments by Israeli officials that it claimed demonstrate intent.
Malcolm Shaw, an international law expert on Israel's legal team, called the comments South Africa highlighted "random quotes not in conformity with government policy."
HAS THE ICJ EVER RULED BEFORE ON GENOCIDE?
In 2007, the court ruled that Serbia "violated the obligation to prevent genocide" in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when Bosnian Serb forces rounded up and murdered some 8,000 mostly Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian region.
Two other genocide cases are currently on the court's docket. Ukraine filed a case shortly after Russia's invasion nearly two years ago that accuses Moscow of launching the military operation based on trumped-up claims of genocide and that Russia was planning acts of genocide in Ukraine. In that case, the court ordered Russia to halt its invasion, an order that Russia flouted.
Another case involves Gambia, on behalf of Muslim nations, accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Gambia filed the case on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Both Gambia and South Africa have filed ICJ cases in conflicts they are not directly involved in. That's because the genocide convention includes a clause that allows individual states — even uninvolved ones — to call on the United Nations to take action to prevent or suppress acts of genocide.
HAVE OTHER INTERNATIONAL COURTS PROSECUTED GENOCIDE?
Two now defunct U.N. tribunals — for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda — both dealt with genocide, among other crimes.
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The Yugoslav court convicted defendants including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic on genocide charges for their involvement in the Srebrenica massacre.
The Rwanda tribunal, headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania, was the first international court to hand down a genocide conviction when it found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of genocide and other crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1998. He was convicted for his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, when militants from the Hutu majority slaughtered some 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis. The tribunal convicted 62 defendants for their roles in the genocide.
The International Criminal Court has charged ousted Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir with genocide in the Darfur region. He has not been handed to the court to stand trial. Al-Bashir's government responded to a 2003 insurgency with a campaign of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as Janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
A hybrid domestic and international court in Cambodia convicted three men members of the Khmer Rouge whose brutal 1970s rule caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. Two of them were found guilty of genocide.
8 months ago
Crime in the capital 'under control': DMP Commissioner
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq on Monday said that the law and order situation in the capital is quite stable at present and crime is under control.
The law and order situation has improved in the capital because the DMP is working as a team and 'Team DMP' is ready to face any situation in future as well, he said.
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The DMP Commissioner came up with the remarks while addressing the monthly crime review meeting for the month of August 2023 at the DMP headquarters on Monday.
The DMP chief also said that following the prevailing laws of the country, all police officers should perform their duties with professionalism to maintain law and order and control crime.
The top officer of the DMP asked the officers to give more importance while executing arrest warrants, investigating theft and dacoity cases, as well as recovering stolen vehicles and drugs.
Police to be on high alert for Janmashtami celebration: DMP Commissioner
He also asked them to strive for gaining public trust through public engagement.
About the activities of Beat Policing, the DMP Commissioner said that a close relationship between the people and the police will be developed if the activities of Beat Policing are implemented successfully.
The distance between police and people will decrease and for this, people will be able to inform the police about their problems very easily. Crime control will also be much easier by gathering intelligence through beat policing activities, he added.
Political rallies may be banned in future if those cause public suffering: DMP Commissioner
During the meeting, the DMP Commissioner awarded various levels of policemen of the DMP in recognition of their good work in maintaining law and order and public safety provisions of Dhaka city.
1 year ago
Joint operation to prevent crime, violence in Rohingya camps soon: Home Minister
Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said a joint operation will be conducted very soon to seize arms and drugs and to prevent terrorist activities in the Rohingya camps.
If necessary, the army will also be involved in this operation, he said.
The minister made the remarks while talking to reporters after attending a meeting of the National committee for coordinating, managing and maintaining law and order of Rohingyas at the Secretariat on Tuesday (May 23, 2023).
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Highlighting the decision of the national committee on coordination, management and law and order of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals displaced, the minister said: "There is an increasing trend of violence in the Rohingya refugee camps. Terrorist activities are on the rise. In light of this, it was decided in the meeting to increase law enforcement patrols, checkpoints, and intelligence surveillance to stop Rohingya miscreants from committing acts of violence within the camp.”
Asaduzzaman Khan said the authorities will conduct a joint operation – based on intelligence – to prevent members of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Arakan Army (AA) from entering the camps.
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"We have set up barbed wire fences and watchtowers to prevent Rohingyas from leaving the camp, and we conduct regular patrols," he said. “The security measures will be strengthened further so that they cannot escape. Members of law enforcement agencies are on high alert.”
Asked whether the army will be involved in the joint operation, the minister said, "If necessary, we will call the army."
“We will not allow drug trade. We will make sure that there is no more bloodshed.”
Meanwhile, the home minister said the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will be instructed to stay on high alert on the border to prevent anymore Myanmar nationals from entering the country.
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Among other things, discussions were held to speed the diplomatic efforts to send Rohingyas back to Myanmar. Various issues including rohingya health, birth control were also addressed at the meeting.
The home minister said, "The decision to repatriate the Rohingyas is still active. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working on it. We hope (repatriation process) it will continue. ’
When asked about the Rohingyas who are hesitant to go back to Myanmar, he said, "It’ll pass. How long will we keep them? We want them to go back to their country.”
The Home Minister said the registration process of Bangladeshi fishermen fishing in the Naf River is ongoing.
Read more: Norway announces $6.5 million support for Rohingya refugees
1 year ago
Teen gangs must be stopped: PM
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (March 19, 2023) asked law enforcement agencies to take action against cybercrime and the trend of teen gangs.
“We’ll have to monitor cybercrimes and take action accordingly. RAB and intelligence agencies will have to play a decisive role in this regard,” she said.
The prime minister was speaking at the 19th founding anniversary of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at the force’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Kurmitola.
Saying that her government developed the country as “Digital Bangladesh”, the PM said cybercrimes have increased as the scope of digitization expanded.
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Sheikh Hasina said the aim of Digital Bangladesh is to ensure the wellbeing of the people, not to cause distress.
She said there are some anti-state forces. They see “nothing, no matter how much advancement Bangladesh achieves.” There is another section of people who “defame Bangladesh to foreigners and secure financial or other benefits through this,” the PM said.
Talking about the US sanction imposed on RAB officials, the premier asked RAB personnel not to be upset at what others said about them but rather move ahead resolutely.
“This is our country that was freed through the sacrifice of blood… We know who does what and we’ll assess accordingly. We have to work with confidence,” she said.
Read More: Man killed in RAB gunfire for 'protesting neighbour's arrest,' family says
“We will have to identify those who carry out propaganda and defame Bangladesh. We will have to find out why they are doing it and their purpose,” she added.
The PM said Bangladeshis can judge who has done good or bad. “If anyone commits an offense, we must speak about it. Don’t be upset at what some people are saying. You will have to move ahead with a sense of self-esteem and confidence,” she said.
About the rising trend of teen gangs, Sheikh Hasina said parents, teachers and public representatives alongside law enforcers must take responsibility to put an end to the culture of teen gangs. “The teen gangs must be stopped,” she said.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and RAB Director General Additional IGP M Khurshid Hossain also spoke at the programme.
Read More: 8 arrested while trying to rob a RAB vehicle in Narayanganj: RAB
1 year ago