Dear Readers,
My workplace, Chuadanga, is a small border-area district. It is a wonderful, wonderful area gifted with dazzling natural beauty. Green shadowy trees along the roadside, golden paddy fields…you name it! Whenever I move past the rural roads during day patrol, I just tell myself- “This is the reason why I can proudly say Bangladesh is the most beautiful country in the world.” I mean every word I say.
Whenever some of my NSU friends saw me preparing for BCS exam, they used to ask- “OMG you want to be a government officer, how will you live outside Dhaka!!?? Well, buddies, there is a whole wide beautiful Bangladesh outside Dhaka where majority of our country live in. Come and check it out!
Coming back to policing, Chuadanga was one of the most crime-prone areas in the whole country. Extremism, murder, rape, smuggling, drug-dealing, child-trafficking….almost all types of crimes were common in this small district. When I joined here, my immediate boss told me- “Welcome,kid! If you know how to handle Chuadanga, you will know how to handle any other area in Bangladesh.”
Some crimes were so heinous that it gave me goosebumps when I first visited the former crime scenes. For example, one extremist leader used to carry the severed head of a victim, showed it to the villagers and asked for money. Another very frequent modus-operandi was to take a poor victim to the brick-field and dump him alive inside the burning furnace. No trace of his body could be found, even the bones and teeth became vanished inside 1000 degree heat of brick-field. In case you want to imagine, try the pic:
Thanks to stern actions taken by law enforcement agencies,the situation is very much under control now. My OC told me- “Sir,just couple of years back whenever my phone rang in the morning-I knew that some poor fellow lost his life-that too in a horrific way.”
I am happy that my baptism of fire as a crime fighter has taken place in a district like Chuadanga. However, I am also very relieved that it is a safer place now. At least some points added to the image of my department!
This cute puppy is a natural alarm system for the criminals!
Criminals in my district might not be very highly educated, but there is absolutely no way to belittle their intelligence. For example, most of them use natural alarm system against police raids. Can you guess what it is? The answer can be found here:
Aren’t they really cute??
Many times at night-raids the pet dogs of criminals started to bark one mile before we entered their house and helped them to escape. So, we changed the strategy and started raiding at broad daylights where dogs are at a relaxed mood. The result: Increase in the number of arrests and me taking pictures of cute puppies!
I have faced many different situations while conducting raids. If anyone asks me what is the most difficult part of a police operation, my answer will be a bit unconventional. For me, it is not the risk of facing bullets or bombs, neither is it the freezing cold or sleepless nights. The toughest thing that I faced while arresting criminals is the agony in the eyes of their family members. Painful tears from the eyes of a wife or mother makes my job more difficult than a hundred bombs or bullets will ever do.
There is almost no chance that any of my reader is a potential criminal. However, as an ordinary law enforcement officer, here is a message to all of us,including myself. If, ever, at any point of your life you plan to commit a crime, think twice. Think of your family. Think what horrible fate they will have to undergo as a consequence of your actions.
Robert de Nero depicted it in his wonderfully directed movie “A Bronx Tale”. Colagero, a boy, who is highly impressed by the lifestyle of the local gangster (Sonny), confronts his father (lorenzo). The following conversation goes like this:
Colagero: Sonny was right. The working man is a sucker, Dad. He is a sucker.
Lorenzo: He’s wrong, it don’t take much strength to pull a trigger, but try get up every morning day after day and work for a living. Let’s see him try that. Then we’ll see who’s the real tough guy. The working man is the tough guy, you’re father is the tough guy.
I agree hundred percent. Let us all be the real tough guys by staying clean and making our family proud of us, shall we?
First published: 19 February, 2015