The brutality of muggers

A photo was published in this newspaper's front page yesterday of the son of Helena Begum, who was killed the day before, as muggers pulled her handbag and, when she fell off, drove their vehicle over her. The boy's expression speaks volumes about the shock he was going through.

This is not an isolated incident. The Daily Star documented at least three recent incidents in which people have lost their lives when muggers tried to snatch their valuables. It is most likely that had people not been killed, these incidents would have gone unreported. We do not know how many such incidents take place every day. What we do know, however, is that almost all such muggers get away after having been caught by police, because of legal obscurity, procedural complexity and the lack of cooperation and determination of the prosecution and the victims. This makes us wonder, will the family of Helena Begum get justice in the end?

It seems from current cases that muggers have adopted a new strategy to carry out their crime. They now use a vehicle—a car or motorcycle—in their operations so that they can flee quickly from the spot, enhancing the risk of killing or injuring the victims.

Mugging has been one of Dhaka's longstanding problems. What is baffling is that in spite of significant increase in logistics of law enforcement agencies, mugging continues to thrive, endangering public safety and security. Why, despite more resources and technical knowhow, our law enforcers are not being able to nab these muggers and put them behind bars? At present there is no legal definition of mugging and only "robbery" is recognised in the law. This hampers the legal process of mugging cases. The first step is to address this omission. At the same time, the law enforcement agencies must work harder to destroy the network of muggers.