Murders in Chittagong city have alarmingly increased recently with 15 people becoming victims of gruesome killings in just over a month, preceding November 9.
The figure was five in September and three in August, said Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) sources.
Sociologists and psychologists have expressed concern, taking the peaking as an indication of degrading ethics and social values among the city dwellers.
According to CMP, the 15 victims comprised six men, five women and four children while the murders occurred under the jurisdiction of 12 police stations.
Analysing the murders, police found that in most cases the killer and victim knew each other.
The killings were triggered by arguments over personal or petty matters. Most of the killers were non-professionals and the use of firearms was almost nonexistent.
Instead the victims were stabbed, strangulated or beaten to death. Nine of the victims were found indoors while the remaining bodies were thrown in the river or sea, said the sources.
“Killers throw the bodies away to destroy as much evidence as possible and make it harder for law enforcers to connect them to the murder,” said Pradip Kumar Das, officer-in-charge of Panchlaish Police Station.
He added that the recent killings were not pre-planned.
One of the most notable and gruesome was that of a mother and her two children. A house tutor, Tareque Chowdhury, 22, used a knife to hack to death Doli Akhter, 30, and her children, Albhi, 10, and Adiba, 7, in their Khatiberhat residence on October 23.
Initially stating it as a sequence of a failed rape attempt, the killer later tried to justify his actions by accusing the mother of misbehaving and not paying his honorarium in due time.
Fourteen-year-old domestic help Sonia alias Ruma was allegedly strangulated by her employer, Tasmim Rahman, 38, in a Golpahar flat on November 4 for not duly following her employer's directions.
The same day, two persons, Rahim and Ilias, beat a mason, Md Irfan, 25, to death inside Rahim's Babul Colony residence for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.
“These killings are a result of a lack of tolerance among people,” said CMP Additional Deputy Commissioner (North) Md Shahidullah.
People must be more aware about the meaning of crime and punishment and be more tolerant to refrain from such offences, he said.
Assistant Prof Syed Muhammd Sazzad Kabir of Chittagong University's psychology department blamed the decrease in people-to-people contact.
“Satellite culture, modern technology and technology-based entertainment are responsible for the decrease in social bonding. People are becoming isolated with the use of technology and its impacts on their minds.
“They take decisions by themselves and hence those prove to be wrong most of the time. They become serious over trifle matters and commit offences by becoming agitated very easily,” he said.
He suggested including more lessons on morality and social values in the education system to rid society of the evil. “Adolescents need more care and counseling too,” he added.
Prof Gazi Saleh Uddin of CU's sociology department said, “The country's political and economic instability have a negative influence on the social sense of citizens. We are becoming mechanical, thinking for ourselves only.”
Delays in the judicial process also prompt people to take law into their own hands to satisfy grudges, he added.
Prof Gazi suggested law enforcement agencies and social organisations to organise social awareness building programmes to improve the country's socio-economic situation.
CMP Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam said though they succeeded in nabbing most of the killers, preventing the indoor murders was almost impossible for them.
He said CMP was continuing some social awareness programmes in this regard.