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BITTER TRUTH

Youngsters slip into crime cauldron
IN an ideal world, there are some stories we'd love to avoid — those with an excess of blood and gore. Some of us may find watching films based on such themes entertaining and then go away from the TV screen with the reassurance that it was all fiction. However, what is on the silver screen is coming far closer to our neighbourhood than we would have thought. There is a general sense of alarm across the country, aroused by a recent spurt in crime involving the young and including everything from extortion to robbery to arson to murder.
Ghastiy incidents like Tumpa and her brother Babla's murder in the city, Russel's murder and killing of two SUST students in the recent past illustrate how young men in the age group 16-25 are slipping into the crime wave. These crimes are a reminder of the barbaric underworld activities now spreading among kids who are supposed to be the innocent.
The cult of warlordism that began in early 1980s has now spread all across the country. Most of the vicious crimes like murder and arson relate to either drug sale or drug money sharing. This country is no stranger to violence and atrocities, but it is impossible to explain the abominable ferocity in the killing of a minor boy for ransom at Keraniganj in the outskirt of the city.
The majority of the heinous crimes are being committed today by the young. Sure, the young have never been angels and adolescence is often a time for rebellion and rage. But these young criminals, operating individually or in gangs, seem to come from the affluent and middle class families.
Recent incidents of such horrendous killing, burglary abduction, rape and extortion by youngsters chill the bone. A report published in Prothom Alo on February 21 said that police arrested 6 school students in Chittagong because they were allegedly involved in a burglary in the house of a physician. Much to everybody's shock and consternation, all these boys were school students and were within the age range 15 to 20.
Yet another report in Prothom Alo on January 24 was profoundly shocking. It said that, hard pressed by poverty, a newlywed couple came to Dhaka in the early week of January from the northern part of the country and started living in Bhasantek Balurmath after the wife got a job in a garments factory. The
woman aged 22 was gang raped by four hoodlums of the locality. What was most chilling was that the hoodlums entered her house when her husband was away at work. They forced the woman to prepare food for them. They ate the food and gang raped her in turn.
Criminologists say that the crime rate among the youth has gone up by about 60%, mentioning that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of heinous crimes committed by young people from middle
houses, and jilted boyfriends throw acid on school and college going girls. Most shockingly, women in the age group 16-30 are living under constant threat to their lives and in several cases, wary of the humiliation, they committed suicide.
More importantly, for well-known criminal gang leaders, a generation of cheap labour is now available. Hired goons in the age group 16-25 are now committing the most atrocious crimes, ripping apart the age-old societal norms and value systems. This has serious
class and upper middle class families. A survey by a crime research group indicates that 90% of all serious crimes committed in recent years have been committed by young men trying their hand at crime for the first time. Law enforcers also admit that the situation is getting really serious.
Every day in the cities businessmen get robbed, commuters get mugged, and sometimes stabbed and killed even in trains, buses and on most highways. Women get raped not only on their way back from work places but also within the safe boundary of their
repercussions since it renders criminal investigations obsolete. Crime dossiers, finger print banks, village crime books, list of bad characters — the foundations of detection -- are of no use since a vast majority of criminals are now young novices. Quick money seems to be the new mantra. With family values already under stress and job market squeezing up, crime suddenly seems to be the most alluring option. For them, crime pays!
How can these youngsters kill so dispassionately? Experts say that each young criminal has his own
genes, his own family background, and his own response to many forces in the society that encourage violence. But a generation is forged through common experience. And the present generation is going through one of those plastic moments in history — where old value systems have crumbled and new ones have not firmed up.
Unfortunately, the pleasures, comfort and luxuries of modern life dazzlingly displayed on TV screens have permeated into our lifestyle, and the idealism that once inspired educated or even rustic rural people has taken severe knocks. The youngsters born in the late '80s grew up in a world full of scams and corruption. They want ready success, ready money, unbridled fife with all the comforts and luxuries, and believe they can use any means to get them. They find that crime and brute force pay a premium.
Loosening family ties, the growing influence of money and the burden of increasing competition are some of the factors that are pushing these youngsters into the "fast lane" of life. Lack of communication, absence of guidance on moral values and diminution of proper rearing are compounding the derailment. Most parents think substituting time and loving care with money is adequate compensation for their kids' needs. Alas! That perception has proved to be so wrong.
Almost awash in guns and plagued by addicts and extortionists, Dhaka and big cities in the country are struggling to cope with the wave of violence. Newspaper reports supported by National Bureau of Crime records assert that incidents of kidnapping, assault and brutal killing of businessmen, political activists and even innocent children held for ransom are done by hired killers.
After a thorough analysis of such violence by the youth who earn money in exchange of contract killing without having any direct link or animosity with the victim, one is led to believe that the damage starts from the home and the environment in consequence of the lack of parental care, and loosened family ties, and sometimes under peer pressure.
Since extortion and murders are mostly drug-fueled, the government should step up the fight against drugs, poverty, corruption and social inequity. But, unhappily, when the "crusaders" themselves are reportedly getting involved in drug trade, there is very little hope that this scourge can be eliminated.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star. E-mail: aukhandk@gmail.com