Lifting of CNG-run auto rickshaw has gone up alarmingly in the Sylhet area in recent times as
organised gangs outsmart law enforcers with newer techniques.
Sources have said, having been backed by unscrupulous law enforcers, political leaders and
notorious criminals, these lifter rackets not only outsmart but have also gone out of control of the
law enforcement agencies.
According to police and Rapid Action Battalion, a total of 214 auto rickshaw lifting gangs are actively
operating around the Sylhet area.
The members of these gangs are given training on lifting and how to sell the mugged vehicles back
to the owners for higher sums.
Sources said the lifting rackets would often act like human kidnappers. They would pick up an auto
rickshaw and ask for ransom from the owner. Sometimes they would even hold the driver hostage
and ask for ransom.
Sources said some 10 auto rickshaw drivers had been killed in the last year by lifting gangs but the
law enforcers had neither managed to arrest anyone nor locate the gangs involved with the killings.
Generally, they would pick up a vehicle by identifying themselves as detective police officers to the
drivers. They would pretend to file cases against the driver and even provide fake documents and
ask him to collect the vehicle from the office of DB police.
Sometimes, well dressed up women would take ride on an auto rickshaw and after reaching a quiet
place, would pretend to be sick and ask the driver to bring a bottle of water or something like that
from nearby shops. By the time the driver returned, the women would flee with the vehicle.
At other times, gang members, riding a private car, would come near a CNG auto rickshaw and
pretend that the car has malfunctioned and hire that rickshaw. After having gone a little further, the
lifter, guised as the passenger, would tell the CNG driver to stop and fetch him a paper that he had
mistakenly left back in the car. When the driver would return, the lifter would have made way with
the vehicle.
Rukon Uddin, add-commissioner of SMP, told the The New Nation that the law enforcers had been
trying their best to bring these criminals to book and trace the lifter kingpins.
Sources also said a number of gangs, consisting mainly of women, also operate in different parts of
the Sylhet area. – Our Correspondent
