Dhaka Metropolitan Police has started compiling details of all jewellers in the capital along with private security guards hired by jewellery shops or different market authorities amid allegations of burglaries.
The DMP officials said that they were compiling the details of the jewellers and relevant individuals as part of ‘preventive measures.’
In a meeting with the top officials on May 16, DMP commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam discussed the security arrangement at jewellery shops located in the capital and asked officials concerned to gather their details.
It prompted joint commissioner (crime) Anisur Rahman on May 26 to issue a letter to 50 police stations in Dhaka to collect the data of all jewellery shops, goldsmiths and diamond shops.
Anisur also asked the police stations to gather detailed information about the private security guards posted in markets featuring jewellery shops.
‘It’s our preventive measures. We are still compiling the data,’ Anisur told New Age.
Gulshan police station was among the police stations to act promptly, collecting the information of 58 jewellers in detail and both the permanent and present addresses of security guards of jewellery shops in the area.
Bangladesh Jeweller’s Association, better known as BAJUS, said that they had around 1,000 members in Dhaka city.
BAJUS law and membership committee chairman MA Wadud Khan, and the owner of Chandrima Jewellers said that they occasionally seek additional police assistance for vigilance as burglars open target jewellery shops during the market weekend and Eid vacation.
‘Since 2006, we have been sitting with the government and law enforcement agencies seeking additional protection for jewellers and their shops,’ he added.
BAJUS secretary general Dilip Kumar Agarwala, the owner of Diamond World Ltd, however, said the police were collecting the data in a scattered way and the process irked some jewellers.
‘For example, in Uttara, they [the police] are collecting details of our staff after visiting our shops. We do not know whether the personal data can be misused by others,’ he said.
‘I would rather say, the DMP can formally seek the data to our organisation or can send us a data storage link where the owner or staff will upload their information,’ he said.
The jeweller’s association could not immediately share information about the number of burglaries in their shops in recent months.
In February, burglars reportedly took away 302 bhories of gold, diamonds worth Tk 30 lakh and Tk five lakh in cash from two jewellery shops at Rajanigandha Tower of Kachukhet area, near Dhaka cantonment.
The Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch of police said that they had arrested four people, including two security guards of the market for their involvement in the burglary.
Earlier, on December 18, 2021, robbers took away 600 bhories of gold ornaments and other valuables from two jewellery shops at Karnaphuli Garden City Shopping Mall in Dhaka.
In February 2021, the burglars reportedly covered CCTV cameras on a floor with tissue paper and scotch tape and looted over 500 bhoris gold ornaments, money and other valuables after breaking into a jewellery shop at Rajlaxmi Jewellers, and three other shops at the Rapa Plaza shopping mall in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi.
Armed men robbed as many as 19 jewellery stores at Ashulia in Dhaka on September 6, 2021.
In September 2021, the Criminal Investigation Department arrested 11 people for their alleged involvement in gold looting from shops in Dhaka and adjacent districts, including two major gold robberies at Rapa Plaza market and Ashulia in Dhaka.
CID special police superintendent Mukta Dhar then said that the looted and stolen gold was being sold at Tanti Bazar of the capital.
The 11 people were allegedly involved in looting gold from different shops in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Cumilla, Narsingdi, Brahmanbaria, Tangail, and Sirajganj.