Those who are familiar with the lawlessness in the crime-infested Gotham City where Batman comes to the rescue of the victims will perhaps think whether all the criminals of the godforsaken fictitious American city have migrated to Gazipur. The reason for such thought is: in the recent years the industrial zone has become a hotbed of crime of every description. But the disappointing part is there are lots of bats in the trees in Gazipur but no Batman. The crime-buster has not migrated to Gazipur hence victims do not get rescued in the very last moment.
Mugging and drug peddling are the main source of income for the jobless young people in Gazipur, especially those who live in the slums. The absence of law enforcement on a regular basis is glaringly nonvisible there. Police records show that 106 murders have taken place in Gazipur city and adjacent areas in the last seven months. Which is over 15 murders a month or one in every second day. If it is not scary then what is? To add to the notoriety of the city, a local journalist named Tuhin was hacked to death by some criminals of the area about a week back. His fault was he had been filming a mugging incident in the locality when the muggers pounced on him with sharp weapons. And a couple of days earlier another journalist was beaten mercilessly by a group of hoodlums. He was lucky to have escaped with his life. Some days back eight pieces of a young man’s body was discovered in the area.
Local officials point out that since it is an industrial area, more than 70 per cent of the population comprise migrant labour force who have to live in slums. And crime breeds in such slums since policing becomes difficult in these places. Many hardened criminals also have connections with criminal gangs in Dhaka and join them on occasions. After committing a crime like mugging and robbery they come back to Gazipur slums and hide there for some days. Interestingly, most criminals have often been arrested before and served short term jail sentences. They came out on bail and got involved in crime as they had no other means of earning a living.