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Hijack on Highways

Transport owners demand security

Ask govt to act on their demand in 3 months

Kailash Sarkar and Saidun Nabi
Rampant incidents of hijacking of goods-laden vehicles through killing drivers and helpers on highways have left vehicle owners, businessmen and transport leaders deeply worried.
Their frustrations deepen as neither are the looted goods and transport recovered nor are the criminals arrested. Worse, police often refuse to take cases in these connections.
More than 400 drivers and helpers of goods-laden trucks and covered vans are killed by robbers and goods worth around
Tk 200 crore are hijacked on the highways every year, claimed vehicle owners and leaders of transport organisations yesterday.
Owners and transport leaders of Dhaka and Chittagong at a press conference at Chittagong Press Club also accused the law enforcers of being reluctant to move against the criminals and harassing the victims.
They placed a 16-point demand, giving the government a three-month ultimatum to fulfill them. They warned that they would wage a "tougher movement" should the government fail to meet the demands.
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The demands include increased monitoring on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, immediate measures to recover the looted goods and hijacked vehicles, arrest of the criminals, steps against those who purchase the looted goods and intensifying police patrolling by highway police at night and setting up of check posts in danger zones.
Vehicle owners and transport leaders said the highway from Meghna-Gomti Bridge to Ashulia is the most hijack-prone area where around 90 percent of the looting takes place.
"At least 30 MS rod-laden trucks and 20 other vehicles carrying goods were looted in the last one month. During the same period, at least eight transport workers were killed by the robbers," Sirajul Haque, chairman of Inter-District Goods-laden Transport Association, told The Daily Star.
"We do not get support from the police stations concerned after such incidents. They [police] do not even take cases in most of the cases and try to shift the responsibilities on to other police stations. This is harassment," he added.
Abul Kashem Majumder, secretary general of Bangladesh Auto Re-Rolling and Steel Mills Association, said incidents of hijacking of trucks loaded with rods
and other goods were increasing day by day.
He said criminals were getting desperate and taking advantage of police reluctance in checking the menace.
"A syndicate with strong links is involved in such hijacking," he told The Daily Star on May 22 after robbers hijacked a truck from Savar by killing a helper.
Referring to the incident, Rustum Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Owners Association, said, "We are now totally insecure. Not only are vehicles hijacked, the lives of our drivers and helpers are at grave risk as well."
Asaduzzaman Miah, DIG of Dhaka Range Police, said yesterday, "I have directed all the police stations under Dhaka Range Police to record cases where the incidents take place."
Earlier, he told this newspaper that he had asked businessmen and truck owners to use Global Positioning System (GPS) in all the vehicles to avert such incidents and also inform the district police control room before the trucks enter the district.
DIG Humayun Kabir, chief of Highway Police, however, said "We don't have adequate manpower and transport facilities to secure the entire highway."