Railway safe route for criminals

Bangladesh Railway has turned into a safe route for criminals due to manpower crisis in the Government Railway Police (GRP) and lack of modern equipment like scanners in railway stations. Relevant sources said, it is not possible to control crimes with limited police personnel while a huge number of passengers travel by train everyday.

Consequently, incidents of recovering drugs, gold and firearms from the train toilets, luggage, shoes and secrete parts of passengers have become common phenomena in the railway.

According to the railway department, the GRP badly lacks manpower along modern equipment. Where it needs 15,000 personnel, there is only 24,00 in operation. However, the rate of illegal goods recovering and criminal arrests is around 10 percent.

Recently, railway police arrested Sohel Rana, Jailer of Chattogram Central Jail from a compartment of Mymensingh-bound Bijoy Express train coming from Chattogram at Bhairab railway station along with Tk 44.43 lakh in cash, 12 bottles of Phensidyl, three FDR of Tk 250 crore in the name of his wife and brother-in-law, cheque of Tk 1.30 crore and cheque books of different banks.

Abdul Mazid, Officer in Charge (OC) of Bhairab Railway police station said, "Not only Sohel Rana, many people are carrying such illegal goods including drugs, arms and smuggled gold through trains as railways are now being used as safe route for the criminals."

Mazid further said, all railways are open; even there are no boundary walls in the railway stations. Criminals enter and exit in the stations freely without checking as we don't have necessary modern equipments like scanners for searching. To prevent such crimes, setting up necessary gates along with scanning machines has now become very urgent.

Seeking anonymity, a senior officer of the GRP told The Asian Age that, around 375 trains ply on different routes everyday along with over 3 lakh passengers. Criminals use trains in the guise of passengers due to lack of proper searching facility in the trains and stations.

Female criminals carry drugs like Phensidyl, heroin and yaba pills at different secrete and sensational parts of their bodies. But, searching them properly is not being possible for want of adequate female police personnel.

Ashfaqul Alam, Superintendant of Dhaka Railway Police said, "Railway police have become more active after arrest of Chattogram Central Jail's jailer. Drives against criminals will be continued in the railways."

Nigar Sultana, Superintendent of Railway Police headquarters said, "There is a shortage of female police in the railway. Most of the times, females carry illegal goods with their bodies. We however, continue searching works taking several techniques to curb crimes in railway. In this aspect, there is needed to appoint more female police in the department."

Additional IGP Mohammad Abul Kashem, Chief of the Railway police said, "Recruitment of necessary number police personnel is very urgent in the GRP. I have sent letters several times to the concerned authorities seeking at least 14,000 police personnel, but to no effect. Finding no way, we are still running the department with only 2,400 police members."