CHATTOGRAM, Jan 21: Jangal Salimpur in the forest area of Sitakunda upazila under Chattogram has developed as a 'safe haven for criminals' over the last in four decades showing thumbs to the administration.
The local administrations of Chattogram district and the law enforcing agencies have conducted several attempts to root out the criminal gangs controlling the area just outside the city. But all such attempts of the administration have ended in vain.
Sometimes, the law enforcers had become the target of those criminal gangs that has been continuing unabated.
In such an attempt one RAB officer was killed in Jangal Salimpur on Monday last.
The criminals in Jangal Salimpur are armed with lethal weapons are controlling the area. The criminal gangs regularly attacked the police, and other law enforcing agency members who entered the crime zone in order to suppress the gangs.
As soon as the law enforcement vehicles enter the zone, the occupiers and criminals stationed at the entrance are quickly alerted. They immediately gather and begin firing and throwing bricks and stones from the hills.
Those criminals are active in hill cutting to establish thousands of illegal establishment. Hill-cutting for plot trading continues to this day. To protect this trade and occupation, a criminal gang has been set up in the area.
The gang maintains armed patrols round the clock. Residents need identification to enter, and outsiders cannot access the area. Even police and district administration personnel have frequently been attacked when attempting to enter.
This crime zone is situated in Salimpur Union of Sitakunda upazila of Chattogram. Its rugged hilly terrain has made it a safe haven for criminals.
As the area is contained but the government 'khas' land, the authorities had planned 11 projects, including a prison and an IT park. But the attempt of the local administrations had failed to implement it because the government has been unable to reclaim the encroached land.
Since the political upheaval in the country on 5 August last year, clashes and killings over control of this area have been ongoing.
