Photo: Collected
Chief Whip of the Jatiya Sangsad Nurul Islam Moni has announced that teen gangs will be uprooted from the country within the next three months. He said teenagers will be brought back from the path of crime and given the opportunity to study and acquire skills.
He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a shadow parliament titled ‘What to do to prevent teen gangs’, organised by Debate for Democracy at the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (FDC) on Friday.
According to the chief whip, those who provide patronage or backing behind the teen gangs must be identified and brought under the law. A criminal can have no political identity; action will be taken against whoever is involved in wrongdoing and crime.
He said he wants to see books, not weapons, in the hands of teenagers. They will study, acquire skills and develop themselves in modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.
Nurul Islam Moni further said the culture of indiscriminately putting the blame on the government whenever an incident occurs must be abandoned, and the government must be given the opportunity to work. At the same time, a criminal must be brought under the law, whichever party or identity he belongs to.
He also mentioned the tendency of criminals to change their political identity with the change of power. In his view, those who ran teen gangs under political shelter in the past may try to organise crime in the new situation too by using a different political identity. Work is under way to identify such individuals.
Debate for Democracy Chairman Hassan Ahamed Chowdhury Kiron said the patrons and so-called ‘big brothers’ behind the teen gangs must be identified. To prevent this crime, a social movement must also be built alongside political will.
In this shadow parliament debate titled ‘Social movement is more effective than political will in preventing teen gangs’, St Joseph Higher Secondary School took part as the government party and Mirpur Cantonment Public School and College as the opposition party.
Mirpur Cantonment Public School and College won the debate. After the competition, trophies, crests and certificates were distributed among the participating teams.
