Teenagers across Chattogram are increasingly being weaponised as frontline foot soldiers to safeguard illicit narcotics syndicates and project local muscle, while the puppet masters orchestrating the trade remain safely in the shadows, according to police and community figures.
A spate of violent turf wars in Bakalia has once again exposed the murky nexus linking juvenile gangs, narcotics trafficking, and political patronage.
Law enforcement officers arrested 15 individuals, including a suspect identified as Jasim, following a fiery brawl between rival factions on Syed Shah Road on Sunday night.
The following day, police nabbed Md Murad, the alleged head of the notorious ‘Murad gang’, in Patiya.
Investigating officers and residents confirmed the bloodletting stemmed from a dispute over drug distribution rights, territorial boundaries, and local dominance.
The Bakalia skirmish was swiftly followed by another suspected gangland execution.
Hridoy, a 16-year-old boy, was lured from his home in the Wireless Colony under Khulshi Police Station before being fatally stabbed.
Police have detained five suspects, with extortion and senior-junior gang rivalries leading early enquiries.
Investigators are also probing wider adolescent gang links.
The two incidents within days highlight the pervasive rise of teenage gangs across Chattogram, where minors and young adults are routinely deployed to peddle narcotics, enforce extortion rackets, brandish offensive weapons, and secure local turf.
Narcotics, rivalries, and shadow barons
The violence in Bakalia illustrates how drug networks fuel rival adolescent factions.
According to police and residents, Jasim initially served under Murad, hawking narcotics on his behalf.
When their relationship turned sour, Jasim reportedly began sourcing drugs independently, recruiting his own crew to challenge his former boss.
The struggle for supply lines and territorial supremacy quickly escalated into open warfare, with local youths swelling the ranks of both sides during the clash.
Police officials noted that teenagers are systematically recruited to guard drug dens, monitor suspicious outsiders, escort buyers and sellers, and confront rival outfits.
“A number of hardened criminals deliberately keep out of the spotlight by hiding behind teenagers,” senior officers revealed, acknowledging that pinpointing the adults pulling the strings remains exceptionally difficult, even after high-profile arrests.
From empty desks to street crime
A police study has drawn a direct line between truant schoolboys and juvenile delinquency.
In March 2024, Chattogram Metropolitan Police audited attendance records for Class IX and Class X students across several institutions, discovering an alarming average attendance rate of just 46 per cent.
Investigators found that a significant portion of chronic truants were subsequently sucked into criminal activity, ranging from drug abuse and street dealing to muggings, theft, cybercrime, online gambling, and pornography offences.
Officials noted that the lure of clout and a desperate desire to play the “big man” amongst peers often draw impressionable teenagers into these syndicates.
Many slide into criminality after skipping classes to hang around local ‘big brothers’.
The so-called ‘Dot Gang’ exemplifies the trend: all members rounded up during a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) operation were 16-year-old Cass X students who formed the clique solely to assert dominance and flex power in their neighbourhood.
200 gangs, 1,400 members, and 64 ‘big brothers’
According to official city police records, around 200 juvenile gangs operate in Chattogram, boasting an estimated membership of 1,400.
Over the past six years, these groups have been implicated in 548 offences, including 34 murders.
Crucially, police intelligence identified 64 influential ‘big brothers’, including five local ward councillors, allegedly acting as patrons and financiers to these youth crews.
However, these syndicates are no longer the exclusive preserve of adolescents.
Recent police operations have uncovered adults aged between 18 and 30 active within the ranks as enforcers or leaders, complicating efforts to isolate the adults exploiting minors.
Massive sweep operations
In a bid to stem the tide of youth violence, Chattogram District Police recently launched a coordinated crackdown across 17 police stations.
Targeting dark alleys, markets, railway stations, open fields, and secluded spots, officers detained 445 individuals, including 354 teenagers.
Following verification, 293 youths were handed back to their guardians after signing formal undertakings, having shown no direct link to crimes.
Legal proceedings have been initiated against those tied to specific offences, particularly drug dealing.
Chattogram Superintendent of Police Masud Alam affirmed that operations targeting late-night youth gatherings and public drug consumption would continue unabated.
“Teenage crime cannot be eradicated through law enforcement alone,” he warned.
“Families, educational institutions, and wider society must step up and take responsibility.”
