Incidents of threat for extortion by criminals including outlaws and gang groups marked a sudden increased in ten southwestern districts ahead of the Eid.
At least fifty such incidents took place in the region in last fifteen days, according to police sources and victims.
Police however claimed it is a 'sudden phenomenon' and said drive against the criminals is on.
The criminals are demanding toll from people and threatening them with death, the victims said. Some of the victims lodged General Dairy (GD) with police seeking security. In Kushtia, police arrested one of the alleged extortionists recently.
The victims included government officials, NGO men, teachers of schools and colleges, businessmen and contractors.
At least five GDs were lodged with police stations in Bagerhat in last seven days.
Some NGO officials involved in credit programmes said criminals are threatening them for extortion. At places, criminals threaten to stop credit programmes if they are not paid toll.
“My four field workers have been threatened by a local gang group for toll a couple of days ago when they were returning to office after collecting loan installments in Gangni and Mujibnagar upazilas in Meherpur,” told an executive of a local NGO.
Some businessmen in Meherpur and Chuadanga said outlaws phone them for toll ranging from Tk 5 to 10 lakh. A contractor in Kushtia filed a GD with the Sadar police station on September 21 naming a BNP cadre who is close to a former local BNP lawmaker. The cadre demanded Tk 2 lakh from the contractor who is doing a construction work in Kushtia civil surgeon office.
Police arrested the BNP cadre on September 8. Now his accomplices are threatening the contractor to withdraw the case.
Day labourer Asadul of Simulia village in Mirpur upazila in Kushtia is being treated at Kushtia General Hospital. He was beaten severely for Tk 2000 toll aftyer he took a loan of Tk 10,000 from a NGO on Saturday. A case has been lodged with Mirpur police.
“It is too hard to crush the criminals in the region overnight as they have a good network in the region”, a high police official in Khulna told this correspondent over cell phone yesterday.
He said a special drive is on in the ten districts since September 1. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) is also in the field, he said.
Six criminals belonging to different outlawed parties and gang groups were killed, three each in Kushtia and Jhenidah, in 10 days of the current month, police records said. Police arrested at least 50 alleged cadres during the period and recovered firearms.
At least 13 outlawed parties with 5,000 of cadres are active in the 10 districts.
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