Bangladesh: Back-to-back daylight bus robberies on Dhaka highway spark fear

Dhaka, April 11 (IANS) Bangladesh continues to witness a surge in highway robberies as unidentified individuals on Friday hijacked two moving buses and looted gold ornaments from the passengers at knifepoint in a span of half an hour on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway in Savar. The incident that occurred in broad daylight has raised further concerns about the safety of commuters on the road as at least five buses have fallen prey to the muggers since March 2 in the city of Savar, local media reported.

The first bus robbery took place early morning on the Dhaka-Aricha highway on a Rajdhani Paribahan bus bound for Nabinagar.

"I boarded the Rajdhani Paribahan bus from the Radio Colony area to go to the campus in the morning. Before the bus reached the C&B bridge, three muggers with knives asked the driver to stop the bus. When the driver stopped the bus, they took the passengers hostage at knifepoint, snatched the cash and gold ornaments from the passengers and got off the bus," Bangladeshi daily 'Business Standard' quoted a female passenger as saying.

"There were three of them in total. No one had a mask on their face. There were many passengers on the bus but no one protested and sat quietly at knifepoint," she added.

The second incident occurred in a similar fashion near the Bank Town Bridge area, just half an hour later on the same highway.

"The bus was crossing a bridge in the middle of Bank and Police Town areas when some three to four individuals who were already in the bus looted gold ornaments from the women passengers by pointing knives at them," said a local senior journalist who was also mugged.

Last week, robbers looted cash, mobile phones, and gold ornaments from passengers of a moving bus on the same highway.

Local media has reported an alarming increase in the number of highway robberies, targetting mostly expatriates. According to Bangladesh Highway Police headquarters, such robberies have surged since the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024.

In February, some 74 robbery cases were registered, compared to 71 in January. On February 27 and March 1, two separate robberies took place in Chauddagram, Comilla, districts of Bangladesh, targetting a Malaysian and a Kuwaiti expatriate, Bangladesh's leading Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported on Wednesday.

The crimes, the report mentioned, are not limited to nighttime, with the robbers intercepting passenger buses by blocking roads with felled trees even in broad daylight.

Many organisations alleged that the rise in robberies is due to the inaction and lax patrols of law enforcement agencies. According to reports, many robberies have occurred on highways across the country in recent weeks, with businessmen, expatriates, and even ordinary people falling victim, sparking widespread panic and raising concerns about the effectiveness of law enforcement.

--IANS

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