The police have no statistics on the illegal intruders, including the Indian militants and criminals, who are now residing in the country. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque, disclosed this at a press briefing following a monthly crime preview meeting held yesterday afternoon at the Rajarbagh Police Line Auditorium in the city.

High officials of the DMP and all the officers-in-charge (OCs) of the 40 police stations, and deputy commissioners (DCs) of the eight crime zones under the DMP were present during the briefing. Replying to a query, the DMP boss said, "We have no statistics of the people including Indian militants and criminals, who illegally entered the county."

"We have recently arrested some of the Indian criminals following intelligence information," he said. Asked about arrest of a ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) member from Dhaka by the Detective Branch of the police, he said, "We did not arrest any ULFA member. We arrested an Indian national for his illegal entry in the country."

Comparing the statistics of various crime incidents in the capital in the last two months, he said, "Most of the crime incidents decreased in September rather than in August." "The incidents of murder, abduction and thefts increased in the previous month," he said adding that a total of 24 incidents of murder, 14 abduction and 62 thefts were committed in September while the number was 24, 8 and 43 respectively in August.

The DMP chief thanked his colleagues for successfully maintaining law and order during the Ramzan, Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja, as no major crime incident had taken place during the period. Asked about their steps to ease the city's traffic snarl, he said, "This is not only our duty to deal with the matter, but traffic police alongside the thana police are now frantically trying to ease the problem."

Replying to a query about the drive against illegal and unfit motorised and non-motorised vehicles, DMP commissioner said, "The drive is still on. There are around five lakh illegal rickshaws in the capital. It is logically impossible to seize all the rickshaws as they are only means of earning for the thousands of people." "We seized over 3400 unfit buses during the special drive in the Ramzan. We later handed over all the buses except 500 to the owners after taking their undertakings that they would not ply the buses in the capital," he also said. "We handed over the seized buses to its owners due to place constraint," he added.

-The Independent