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40 gangs active in city carjacking

Carjackers mostly work on greed of drivers, apply newer techniques, steal over 60 vehicles a month

Mukhlesur Rahman
Over 60 carjacking incidents happen in the capital on an average month and those are used in various criminal activities including mugging, robbery and drug peddling while some are sold or disassembled and then sold in pans.
During the first eight days of May, 20 vehicles were carjacked in the capital, said sources in the car theft and carjacking prevention and recovery team of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
According to the team, 62 cars were stolen in January, 59 in February, 63 in March and 70 in April this year.
The DB team sources said from January to April a total of 254 cars and motorbikes were stolen and the team recovered 146 cars during this time.
Chief of the DB team Mukhlesur Rahman, also an assistant commissioner (AC), told The Daily Star that around 40 organised gangs, of seven to 10 members each, are active across the city in carjacking and theft.
He said the gangs use newer tech-
niques of car theft and carjacking.
Some of them conduct armed robbery at fiat buildings to steal parts or entire cars. Another gang later sells the parts to spare-partsshops.
In such an incident on the night of May 4, criminals made away with parts of a private car from the ground floor garage of a six-storey building in West Malibagh. Ramna police said the criminals entered the garage through an air conditioning duct, tied up the security guards and left with several car parts.
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Thieves get twice or thrice the money they usedto get before since they now employ brokers for selling stolen parts in the market. AC Mukhlesur said.
Carjackers use several techniques to steal cars and more often than not the drivers pf the cars are involved.
Generally carjackers try to become intimate with a driver when he is waiting alone at a place for the owner. After a period of time they ask the driver to teach him to drive on daily payment basis. When the driver goes to a secluded place to teach driving, the carjacker takes the vehicle away by either removing the driver at gunpoint or drugging him. There are usually other carjackers waiting to ambush the driver at the spot.
Some drivers pick up passengers when going to or
coming from a place without the owner, being awate. Carjacicers' tSke aSvaritagefof-this and they as passengers get into a car and snatch it, said Mukhlesur.
He said sometimes criminals use special keys, also known as master keys, to steal cars.
Imrul Kayes Chowdhury an official of The Daily Star told the correspondent that car thieves stole his car from in front of a restaurant at Karwan Bazar in the last week of April when his driver Alamgir was away on shopping for only 25 minutes.
Quoting Alamgir, he said the driver had locked the car before going to the market.
He suspected master keys were used in stealing his car.
The DB team sources said carjackers change the number plate after stealing a car to
avert police trouble.
Criminals find it safe to commit 'crimes using stolen cars since ditching a stolen vehicle, when it is required, does not cost them money and they cannot be trailed through documents.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-lO, on April 14 recovered a stolen car and arrested a criminal when he was trying to mug a person at Dayaganj intersection in Sutrapur.
Rab sources said the criminal carjacked the vehicle in the last week of December in Shahbagh area.
On contact, automobile workshop owners in the capital denied any involvement in the trade of stolen cars or stolen parts. They, however, said mechanics who leave workshops mainly get involved in such crimes.