Analysis the Crime Pattern of Coastal and Hill Area in Bangladesh, a Assessment
Introduction: Bangladesh lies on the Bay of Bengal.
She is also enriched with charming hilly areas. with the advancements of time, crime expands everywhere with its distinctive environmental, geographical & socio-demographical features. The fieldtrip we participated and visited Coast Guard, Chittagong; Cox’s Bazaar & Bandorban district opens us the vital opportunity to acknowledges different patterns of crime in the coastal and hilly regions of Bangladesh. Statement Of The Study:
In Bangladesh, the Coast Guard is unique body of force that deals with the crime on the shore of Bay of Bengal and ensure secure sea zone for working & travelling; and also helps to economy on running with smooth velocity through preventing illegal trespassing & outgoing the economic martial’s including manpower. The Cox’s Bazar also a valuable economic zone with its versatility feature of criminal perspectives.
The Bandorban is distinct hilly district holds the particular phenomenon’s of crime.
As a student of Criminology and Police Science we have studied the courses of different aspects of crime distributed in different geographical locations but the practical knowledge was unknown to us which are very essential for us. The visit of Coast Guard at Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Bandorban helped us greatly in this regard. Background of The Study: Crime is the situational & functional phenomenon that changes from place to place on basis of environment, efficiency of law and order agencies and the socio demographic characteristics of native people.
Due to the urbanization and globalization influenced by the different economic factors the modulus of operandi and extent of crime become versatile. The Coast Guard agency at Chittagong region most effetely deals with the costal crime on maintaining law and order in coastal sea area ranges up to 1 km.
from the coast. They face the aspects of crime that orientation is totally different on the nature & feature from the crimes crime in land. The Cox’s Bazar is most popular tourist zone with its largest unique sea beach. So it is a valuable open economic zone on road of development.
Due to quick urbanization and communicational the socio demographic characteristics of people become trend to be unstable.
The Cox’s Bazar is also known as a important corridor of trespassing of criminals and smuggling goods on the land of Bangladesh. The Bandorban is one of the best charming hilly districts in our country. But several geographical characteristics make it distinct from normal people of Bangladesh. At here, keep with the matching with socio demographic feature of people the nature and perspective of crime is totally different from the plane land.
On participating as a member in the study tour I’ve acknowledged different patterns of crime with its social & economic consequence in that region.
We also informed about the situation and preparation of law and order maintaining agencies, specially the Coast Guard & Police; to meet up these challenges and contributing a role to make Bangladesh better and safer place for working and living. Aims and Objectives: We select some aims to find out through the study- To familiar with the organization of Coast Guard. To acknowledge their role on protecting public & economy, working challenges on sea related crime, glory of achievement etc.
To be informed about criminal tread & crime patterns of Cox’s bazaar district. To know about the preparation of Cox’s bazaar police in preventing crime and ensuring safety to the people, especially to the tourist. To familiar with the crime patterns in hilly areas mainly at Bandorban district.
To find out entomological reasons of crime in hilly areas. To acknowledge the preparation of police on taking the challenges regarding to meet up these crime. To develop conceptual assessment by analyzing the crime patterns on costal and hilly region. Methodology:
It is necessary for the one to know not only the methods but also the methodology. Methodology is a way to systematically solve any problem.
Here we all collect data on qualitative process, it is concerned with qualitative phenomenon. Study Area: We visit several placeless on conducting the study tour. We first visit Chittagong coast guard base, then we proceed to Cox’s bazaar & also attended a seminar & a dinar party arranged by district police of Cox’s bazaar. At final stage we visit Bandorban district, there we also took part a discussion with the police authority of district police.
Data Collection Method: As it is a qualitative research we used two methods for data collection ? Focus group discussion ?KII and ?Observational method. Findings of the study: The Bangladesh Coast Guard, is unique institution (excluding Armed Forces) fight on the sea for preserving public right and wealth though they have various fundamental deprivation in both personal & administrative context.
On Cox’s bazaar perspective, the native people are gentle & few people commit crime to meet up the demands of urbanization in different way.
The crime patterns of costal area treaded to black business related including smuggling, selling drugs. Sometimes we notice some violent patterns of crime including robbery, murder. In Bandorban district, the native hilly people are really peace full. Among them violent crime is rare rather they involved few deviance type of crime.
But in Bengali-hilly people mutual perspective there some violent patterns of criminal incidents including robbery, murder, abductions etc. Evolution Of Bangladesh Coast Guard: Prior to the formation of Coast Guard it is Bangladesh Navy who has been entrusted with this sacred policing task at sea.
But navy has legal limitation in enforcing customs, fiscal, immigration and other laws at sea. To overcome all these difficulties Coast Guard Act 1994 was passed by parliament in September 1994 and formally the Coast Guard came into being on 22 February 1995. Organizational Organogram of Bangladesh Coast Guard (CG): Organogram of Bangladesh Coast Guard (CG): (Rank) Jurisdiction & Empowerment: Bangladesh Coast Guard has the jurisdiction over the entire sea areas of Bangladesh as declared under the Territorial waters and Maritime Zone Act 1974 and adjacent land areas along the coastal belt up to 1 km.
Apart from the sea territory, the government has placed all the waterways of Bangladesh including 1-km land areas from the coasts including the waterways of world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarban.
To ensure the task of Bangladesh Coast Guard is empowered to implement rules and regulations under Acts and Ordinances. It have two aspects- National: •Bangladesh Coast Guard Act 1994. •Immigration Ordinance 1982. •Environment Conservation Act 1995. •Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974. •The Marine Fisheries Ordinance 1983.
•Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1983. •The Customs Act 1969. •Narcotics Control Law 1969. Protection and Conservation of Fish Act 1950. •The Forest Act 1927. •The Port Act 1908 International: •United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea III of 1982.
•Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973. •Convention on Biological Diversity 1992. •Convention of Protection of World Culture and Natural Heritage 1972. Under the mentioned Acts and Ordinances the Coast Guard is empowered within the terms of references to arrest any person, seize any property and carryout search having reasons to believe that an offence has been committed in violation of those Acts and Ordinances.
Role & function of the Coast Guard: The fundamental role of Coast Guard is to protect the public, the environment, and the national economic and security interests through law enforcement at sea. Role has been clearly defined in the Coast Guard Act 1994 as you can acknowledge: ?Preserve national interests at sea areas of Bangladesh.
?Prevent illegal fishing in sea areas of Bangladesh. ?Prevent unauthorised entry into and illegal exit from Bangladeshi waters. ?Enforce warrant of any court or any other authority against any incoming marine transport or any person onboard that within the territorial waters of Bangladesh. Search and prevent any act of environment pollution in the sea areas of Bangladesh. ?Ensure safety of people working in sea areas of Bangladesh.
?Prevent smuggling and trespassing or narcotics, drugs etc. ?Participate in relief and rescue operations during natural calamities and salvage disastrous water transport, men and materials. ?Arrange transmission of necessary information including warning signals through radio or any other media during natural calamities. ?Assist Bangladesh Navy during war. ?Carry out patrol in Bangladeshi waters.
Assist concerned authorities to ensure security of seaports. ?Prevent terrorist and sabotage activities in Bangladeshi waters and assist other agencies in this regard. ?Carry out any other duties assigned by the government. Activities of Coast Guard: Coast Guard is involved in many activities. Their participation is in a limited scale but the success rate is praise worthy. Initially the job was limited to anti smuggling and anti piracy operations within port limits of Chittagong and Mongla.
But presently they are to operate in the entire coastal belt of the country.
They are conducting anti smuggling operations, anti piracy operations, fishery protection operations, catching of illegal arms, forest preservation activities including election duty in the coastal and inland areas. More it successfully conduct some special work on the glory of dignity: Fishery protection operations • Participated in ‘Jatka Nidhon Protirodh Operation’ in the coastal area every year. • Coast Guard received ‘Gold Medal’ in 2005 for outstanding success in Jatka Protirodh operation. Prevention of fertilizer smuggling :To curb fertilizer smuggling Operation SABUJ DHAN carried out from Sangu, Shah Pori Dwip and Sitakunda.
Assistance to Bangladesh Navy (BN): •Joint operation is carried out as and when required.
•CG East Zone tok over inner patrol during Bangladesh Myanmar crisis in 2008. Election duty: •Coast Guard was deployed in two constituencies for General Election in 2008 at Dacope and Koira. •One contingent were also deployed in Sandwip for Upazilla re-election . Post cyclone relief operation: • Coast Guard carries out post cyclone operation as a regular task whenever required. • Our Ships have contributed by carrying out post cyclone relief operation after the devastating cyclone Sidr in badly affected area like Barishal and Barguna.
Special Operations: •2006- Operation Nirapad Jiban. •20067- Operation Nirapad Upakul. •Coast Guard was awarded with ‘Gold Medal’ in 2005 for extra ordinary success in Jatka Protirodh Operation . •In 2006 two ship carried out Joint operation with Indian Coast Guard ship at Haldia, India. •In 2009 Coast Guard took part in Ex Somudra Torongo predicated by British Navy ship and Bangladeshi Armed forces and Law Enforcement Agencies Constraints And Limitations of Coast Guard: ?Limited manpower specially shortage of officer.
?No High speed all weather capable ships and boats. The full time security coverage is not possible to the ships beyond outer anchorage. ?No SAR helicopter. Future Plan Of Coast Guard: ?Acquisition of Land. ?Infrastructure and Manpower Development.
?Procurement of Ships / Water craft. Two ships purchasing like CGS RUPOSHI BANGLA is in progress. ?Around 50 high speed boats like US Defender class coming in service very soon ? Air Wing. ?Salvage & Rescue Ships. THE COX’S BAZAR General Orientation of Cox`s bazaar district: Area: 2491. 86 sq.
Km Population: 25 Lac. Ratio of Police & citizen is 1 : 3120 No. of Upazila: 8 No. f Union: 71 Annual Rain Fall: 3,378 mm Highest Temp. Avg.
:39. 50C (Jun) Lowest Temp. Avg. :11. 80C (Jan) Islands: Moheshkhali, Kutubdia,Matarbari-Dholghata, Sonadia & Saint Martin’s. Main Rivers: Bakkhali, Matamuhuri, Reju,Naf & Kohalia Cox`s bazaar Police District jurisdiction: Circles : Cox’s Bazar (Sadar) Circle Ukhia Circle Police Stations : Cox’sBazar Model Thana Chakoria Thana Moheskhali Thana Kutubdia Thana Ramu Thana Ukhia Thana Teknaf Thana Pekua Thana.
Outpost : Town Out Post Beach Out Post Chowfaldody Out Post ( temporary ) Harbang Out Post Badarkhali River Out Post
Kalarmarchara Out Post ( temporary ) Matarbari Out Post ( temporary ) Rajakhali Out Post ( Temporary ) Garania Out Post Himchari Out Post Eidgoar Out Post St. Martin Out Post Hoyikong Out Post Investigation Centre : ? Eidgoan IC ? Matamuhuri IC ? Baharchara IC CourtSytem of Cox’s bazaar District : ? Sadar Court (Cox’s bazaar model Thana, Ramu Thana, Ukhia Thana and Teknaf Thana ) ? Chakoria Court ? Moheskhali Thana ? Kutubdia Thana Crime Trendsof Cox’s bazaar District (Police Enlisted,2010) This scenario indicates that Narcotics crime (9. 89%),women repression (7. 76%), Smuggling (4. 64%),Theft ( 3. 4%), Illegal Arms offences ( 2.
61%), Murder ( 2. 57%), causing major threat to police. Burglary (1. 91%), Child Repression (1. 75%), Robbery (1. 01%) are causing medium level threat on public safety.
Activities of Cox’s Bazaar District Police: ?Organize Community Police Assembly. ?Spontaneous participation on Change himself Change Other self programme. ?Conducting Tourist Policing service 24hours for the safety of tourist at sea beach. ?Arrange Monthly Crime Conference of Cox’s bazaar District Police ? Organize Rally for social consciousness. ?Conducting the programme on beach cleaning initiative Organize Crime Conference and Exchange View ?Organize Police-People Interaction activities e.
g . Cricket Match ? Take action against Narcotics ?Action to Protect Forest ?Arresting most wanted Criminals ?Action against illegal Myanmar Citizen (Rohinga Issues) •Pushback – 442 per. •Arrest – 135 per. •Case filed – 26 Police Problems of Cox’s Bazaar District: ?Most of the Outposts & Investigation centers have no own land. ?Most of the Outposts & Investigation centers have no permanent & safe structure. ?Insufficient land of new Police line.
?Vacancy of 81 different post of District Police. Vehicle Shortage. ?Ratio of Police & citizen in Cox`sbazar district is 1 : 3120 ? A countable portion of this strength is involve in Refugee camp, BDR Magazine room, VVIP & VIP Protection, KPI`s security. ?No logistic support to prevent Sea Dacoit. ?Residence facility about nil. Analyzing The Crime Patterns In Coastal Area (Coast Guard & Cox’s Bazaar Perspective): On above discussion now we are in the platform to generalize the crime patterns in this two aspects.
I proceed on following way- Due to the environmental factors smuggling is the most common crime in this coastal area.
Narcotics crime, women repression, Smuggling ,Theft, Illegal Arms offences ,Murder causes threat on police activity, especially on Cox’s Bazaar. Abduction ,Robbery, Dacoit isn’t so frequent criminal feature of crime in this sea level coastal areas. Drug crimes are expanding due to torrent illicit interest for taking drug. Sea (costal) areas are the potential get-way for smuggling, trafficking, illegal Rohinga trespassing etc. Property related conflict / crime is rare to be seen.
The ratio between law enforcement personal and public is very poor.
So all forms of crime mainly smuggling, criminal & narcotics trespassing, drug crimes, violent crimes is trend to be high day by day. THE HILLY BANDORBAN DISTRICT GENERAL ORIENTATION OF BANDORBAN DISTRICT: ?Bandarban was established as a separate district on 18 April 1981 combining two sub divisions Bandarban and Lama. ?Geographical information: ?This district is surrounded by Myanmar in southern and eastern side. Rangamati in north, Cox’sbazar and Chittagong in western side.
?Area of District : 4,479. 03 Sq. km. •Bandarban Sadar : 501. 99 Sq.
km. •Roangchhari : 442. 89 Sq. km. •Ruma: 616. 42Sq.
km. •Thanchi : 896. 50 Sq. km. Lama: 671.
84 Sq. km. •Alikadam: 885. 78 Sq. km.
•Naikhangchhari : 463. 61 Sq. km ?Demographical information: (As per census 2001) ?Total Population: 3,00,740 ?Male: 1,63,540 ?Female: 1,37,200 ?Tribal : 1,41,213 ?Non Tribal: 1,59,527 ?Population/Sq.. Km:: 67 ?Bangali: 53% ?Tribal: 47% ?Tribal people information: (As per census 2001) In Bandarban 11 indigenous tribes are living with harmony.
They are- TribeTotalPopulation •Marma75,880 •Morong/Mro28,109 •Tripura10,478 •Tonchonga 7,030 •Bom 8,228 •Chakma 5,327 •Khumi 1,471 •Kheyang 1,823 •Chak 2,151 •Pankhu 128 •Losai 293 ?Administrative Units information: Police Circles : 02 •Sadar Circle: Bandarban, Ruma, Roangchori, Thanchi. •Lama Circle:Lama, Alikadam, Naikhongchari. ?Upazilla: 07 ?Union : 29 ?Municipality: 02 ?Police Station: 07 ?Police Investigation Center: 02 ?Police Outpost: 07 ?Police Camp: 11 ?Region(Army): 01 ?Zone(Army): 03 (Sadar,Ruma, Alikadam) ?Zone(BDR): 02 (Balipara, N. chhari) ?Ansar Battalion : 01 ?Cultural Festival information: ?Rajpunna ( Rajpunna is one kind of fair. Where the king of Bomang circle collect tax from the “Headman and the Karbari”, Headman and Karbari collect the tax from their local area.
Headman and Karbari selected by Bomang circle king. ` Rajpunna” fair commences once a year. ) ? Buddo Purnima ?Baisabi, (Sangrai- Marma, Biju- chakma) ?Cow Killing of Murung ?Political information:(Political parties) ?Awami league ?BNP ?Jammat ?Jatiyo Party ?UPDF (United Peoples Democratic Front. Founded on 26 December 1998. The UPDF is a Manifestation of the strong and serious reservations against the Chittagong Hill tract Accord 2 December 1997.
?PCJSS (Parbatya Chittagram Jana Samhati Samiti. Founded on 24 April 1972 by Manabendra Narayan Larma. Present Presedent Sri Jotindro Bodhy Prio Larma Law and Order Situation Of Bandorban District: The Police Force has sufficient manpower and well equipped with modern arms and ammunitions to keep daily law and order situation under control. ? The Police usually gets cooperation from local Army and BDR to secure arrest of miscreants from the remote hilly areas. ? There are rare incidents of breach of peace and amity between local tribes and Bangalis.
Crime Statistics: Of Bandorban District (2005- 2009) Analyzing the Crime Trend Of Bandorban District: ?Despite its landscape, propensity of crime is much less than plain land. ?The tribal populated area is less crime prone than Bangali populated area here. There is hardly any case filed in Thanchi, Ruma and Roangchhari police stations. ?Bangali populated areas like Sadar, Lama, Naikkhongchhari, Alikadam are much crime prone. ?Tribal people commit mostly Alcohol related crimes. ?Property related crimes like Theft, Dacoity etc are less committed here.
?Few incidents of murder occur in remote hilly areas. ?The Crime Statistics indicates that theft & murder causes high risks on public safety. Major focus: ?Kidnapping /Abduction ?Extortion ?Land Dispute ?Conflict between tribe and non tribe ?Illegal entry of foreigners ?Rohinga issue. Special Type of Crime: Though evil activities of so called ‘Shanti Bahini’ is not evident, few terrorists create panic through abducting people. ? Terrorists kidnap such persons for ransom and hide themselves in remote hilly forest. ?Considering the safety of abducted persons the relatives avoid law enforcing agencies and conceal fact.
They try to free the abducted by paying the ransom. District Police Efficiency in Crime Combating: ?Ensuring quality of investigation ?Effective court procedure management ?Pro-active approach of policing ?Applying appropriate preventive sections of laws like 151 of Crpc and 107 and 117©. Community policing; In Response to — ?Domestic Violence ?Trafficking ?Eve-teasing awareness ?Dowry ?Traffic education ?Drug abuse ?School visit for ensuring education and health care ?Tree plantation ?Preserving forest ?Community awareness ?Fire management ?Preservation of hill. Comparison of the crime pattern of coastal and hill area through Analysis : On the base of critical assessment of coastal (Chittagong & Cox’s Bazaar) and Hilly area (Bandorban) now we note as follows- The crime trend on hilly areas is lower than coastal area. Most prominent crime in coastal areas is smuggling.
On the other hand, at hilly area we found abduction & murder are the most affected Crime. The hilly people commit pretty alcohol related crime, sometimes we see property conflict between hilly people & Bengali People but this feature is absent at Cox’s Bazaar. Roninga issue is common problem in both Cox’s Bazaar and Bandorban. Due to the communication obstacle law enforcement personal have serve more hardship in Bandorban than Cox’s Bazaar. There’s no existence of crime committed by “Santi Bahini” at Cox’s Bazaar but the criminal activities are done in the name of this “Santi Bahini” at Bandorban.
Overall, Hilly people are more peaceful than Bengali people of coastal area. Limitations Of The Study: Though the visit in these coastal & hilly areas helped us very much to gain empirical and practical knowledge in the field of investigation but to visit it we have faced some problems . The main limitation were- ? We didn’t get enough time on staying for collecting data at a one place. ?We collect all these information from representative administrative side, we’ve no scope to verify our findings at field level. Sometimes police representative personal seems like pay unwillingness in answering some fundamental issues.
Conclusion: On visiting both these region we become enriched with the knowledge’s that we didn’t have before. This empirical and practical knowledge’s helps us to analyzes the distinct patterns of crime aspects in academic studies. Bibliography Digital documents material, provide by- ?Coast Guard Authority, Chittagong. ?Cox’s Bazaar Police authority ?Bandorban Police Administration Related internet services.