The robbers of Sundarbans seem to have returned to their old profession. The Bagerhat police say they rescued at least 15 fishermen kidnapped between December 13 and 18 by the robbers last week. The police claimed that in the face of their drive, the robbers fled freeing the fishermen they abducted. However, the fishermen said they had to pay ransom for their release. A new group of robbers was reportedly active in the Hormalkhal (canal) and Berirkhal under the Sundarbans' Chandpai range. Fishermen were catching crabs in that area at night on December 15 when the robbers swooped on them and seized a number of crab-catchers as hostage. The released fishermen claimed that some of their members were still held captive in one of their trawlers the pirates had captured. An elite team of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), named Elite Tigers, is learnt to have started its drive last Saturday and mounted patrol at different points including Sharankhola, Joymoni, Baroitola, Andharmanik and Mrigamariagain to free the Sundarbans of robbers.Another team of the elite force, Bengal Tigers, are reportedly put on standby in trawlers to join forces with the Elite Tigers to respond to any emergency.
So, it is again the same old story that the country's largest mangrove forest was once notorious for. After the country's independence, the Sundarbans gradually turned into a sanctuary of armed terrorists and gangs of robbers. The people of the locality whose livelihood depended om the forest became the target of these brigands. During the 1980s and the1990s, the entire Sundarbans including the coastal area went under the control of these bandits. The different groups of brigands divided the entire Sundarbans of about 10,000 square kilometres (about 6,000 square kilometres of which belong to Bangladesh) into their respective spheres of influence. They preyed on fishermen and honey and wood collectors. They would snatch the fish caught by the fishermen or hold them to ransom.They would also poach endangered Royal Bengal Tigers, deer and other animals and sell those to traffickers. From the robbers who later surrendered to the law-enforcers, it could be learnt that the different gangs collected around Tk.2 billion annually as toll through their terror tactics.
To combat the menace, the government in 2012 formed a task force comprising members of the police, the RAB, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Coast Guard and the Forest Department. During the period between 1980 and 2015, more than a hundred robbers were killed in encounters with the law-enforcement agencies.
At this point, one may recall that on November 1, 2018, the government declared the Sundarbans free of criminal gangs. More than 300 robbers from 32 gangs active in the Sundarbans surrendered with their arms to the law-enforcement agencies in presence of the home minister in Bagerhat. Since then, November 1 is being observed as 'Robber-free Sundrbans day'. The government also undertook a programme to rehabilitate the robbers. The robbers also showed eagerness to return to the mainstream society. But why have the robbers again become active in the Sundarbans? Do these robbers represent a fresh crop of brigands or are they the ones who were amnestied, but ultimately failed to adjust to normal life? Whichever the case, the government will be required to get to the root of the issue. For there were reports that many of the robbers who were trying return to civilian life following the government's amnesty complained that they were finding it hard to get a source of livelihood. The reason is whatever financial support they received from the government for rehabilitation purpose was being spent to fight the criminal cases lodged earlier against them. And if they have finally returned to their previous life as outlaws that would call for revisiting the government's original plan of rehabilitating the Sundarbans robbers. In that case, the latest incidents of robbery in the Sundarbans would prove to be more than a law and order issue.
