Chittagong in Focus

Staff Reporter

Incidents of juvenile crime have risen alarmingly in the port city of Chittagong.

Ataur Rahman, senior superintendent of Chittagong jail, told bdnews24.com that 47 children under 18 years of age were imprisoned in the past one and half months alone on a variety of criminal charges.
 
Every gang busted by police or RAB in the last three months had juvenile members, the jail official said.
 
Law enforcers say criminal gangs use children and adolescents as they are able to reach their targets easily.
 
RAB staff officer Sheikh Shariful Islam, however, said many children formed their own gangs, getting involved in criminal activities as their families failed to meet their needs in one way or another.
 
Apart from street children, boys from lower middle-class families were also increasingly common among the young offenders, law enforcers said.
 
Rapid Action Battalion, on July 9, arrested four juveniles on charges of looting gold ornaments from a house in Potenga. They allegedly entered the house of a businessman pretending to distribute invitation cards for a wedding.
 
The four boys were between 14 and 18 years of age.
 
On July 8, three suspected muggers, aged between 17 and 20, were lynched in Olongker Crossing. Law enforcement agencies later arrested some other members of the gang, including five children.
 
Kotwali police last week arrested seven adolescent boys on charges of robbery. The boys told reporters that robbed for a living.
 
Assistant police commissioner of Kotwali Zone, Babul Akter said young offenders did not always understand the impact of these criminal acts.
 
They were usually interested in mugging, though some were involved in more serious crimes, he added.
 
Afzal Hossain, who teaches psychology at Chittagong University, said poverty and the rise in drug use were the key reasons behind the involvement of these young people in criminal activities.
 
But a yearning for 'fancy goods', family feuds and depression, due to any or all of these factors, were also triggers for adolescent crime, he said.
 
Chittagong metropolitan police commissioner M Akbar Ali said spiralling prices and unemployment might in addition be leading more young people towards a criminal path.
 
Psychologist Afzal Hossain said family and society have a greater duty in preventing juvenile crime than law enforcement agencies.

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F. Zubair  - Expatriate |2008-07-26 20:44:33 Apart from the above, there are other factors should be added to define the reason of crimes among juveniles. First : We forgot Islamic values in our curriculum, second : We teach our young boys and girls love story in Intermeidate, degree level and upword. Is it essentials to learn ! free mixing of opposite sex without any hinderence from any side in colleges and univerisities. No privacy for any gender left. Long media campaign to practice exta marital relation before marriage. Actively personal comment not intended to hurt any individual. 0   0

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