Mohammad Hossain is one of the tens of thousands of opposition supporters who have fled “ghost” judicial cases – manufactured charges against acts of dissent, such as attacks on police and incitement of clashes – and ended up ferrying passengers around by motorbike in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, to make ends meet.
Like Hossain, thousands of activists across the country, mainly of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are fleeing such cases and many ended up in the South Asian nation’s busiest hub, BNP leaders claim, with many providing cash-only ridesharing services to survive.
For the past five years, Hossain, 34, has been one of them, becoming a low-key, incognito ridesharing biker in the congested city of 23 million while dodging the law.
Hossain fled his home and small grocery store business in Bangladesh’s eastern Feni district in 2018. At the time, pro-government activists, he said, allegedly filed multiple serious-offense cases against opposition supports, including bombing police during a clash between pro-government and opposition activists.
He said police also filed charges without naming the suspects on the complaint sheet. In such cases, the police then randomly arrest opposition activists by raiding their houses.
“When I heard police raided my house to find me, I walked to the [police] station to prove my innocence,” he told VOA, adding he was away with his wife in nearby Chittagong during the fight.
He was arrested instead, though, he said, and brutally tortured until he was granted bail in the morning. He left home as he heard more ghost cases were brewing against opposition party men.
Bangladesh Police Inspector General Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun in December promised BNP leaders he would revisit such anonymous cases and investigate any alleged harassment against their activists.
Within a week, though, Dhaka police clashed with an opposition anti-government rally in the capital, killing at least one and arresting dozens.
Not alone
Mohammad Ali, a 38-year-old BNP supporter also surviving by ferrying passengers on his motorbike, shared a similar story.
All the men in Ali’s village in western Bangladesh went into hiding for several weeks as anonymous political cases were filed after a clash between opposition and pro-government men.
“I was one of them. When I wanted to go home, I heard the pro-government councilor filed an attempted murder case against me,” the father of four said. “And I never returned.”
According to BNP statistics, almost 159,000 cases were filed against 3.62 million supporters of the party. About 20,000 are currently in jail.
However, incumbent Awami League senior spokesperson Mahbubul Alam Hanif denied the claim, terming it as “complete falsehood.”
“These unbelievable numbers prove BNP’s politics is run by false information,” he told VOA.
BNP spokesperson Zahiruddin Swapon told VOA the Awami League’s “ongoing political process is aggressive” aimed at monopolizing not only state power but also trying to “hold control over the economic and social life of general people.”
“Majority of these motorbikers in Dhaka are victims of this context,” he said.
VOA randomly interviewed 50 ridesharing motorbikers at the six busiest Dhaka intersections and found 34 of them had similar stories of escaping political ghost lawsuits, in addition to loss of their businesses.
The flocking incognitos
Bangladesh has 4 million registered motorbikes, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. Nearly a million bikes are plying Dhaka roads alone.
The smartphone-based ride-sharing app Uber and its local competitors, including Pathao and Obhai, engage motorbikers to register for work in the dense Dhaka traffic.
Tens of thousands of unregistered bikers like Hossain thus camouflage themselves among the massive fleet of bikers.
Sheikh Mahbub Rabbani, the spokesperson for the transport authority, told VOA it is illegal to share rides without registration.
Nevertheless, “If we try to register with papers, we will be arrested soon,” Hossain said, explaining why they prefer running freelance services.
Critics say this excessive number of motorbikers has turned into an additional headache to Dhaka’s existing traffic problems, including heavy roadside construction, lack of development work coordination and manual traffic control.
Mahbub Alam Talukder, a researcher at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s Accident Research Institute, said self-taught motorbikers from rural areas are making the traffic situation worse in the already frustrated city.
“Motorbike is already a risky vehicle. It should never be considered a means of public transport. But given the reality of Dhaka, people are lured towards it to save time and money,” he told VOA.
“These drivers are causing major troubles including fatal accidents,” he added.
The World Bank found in 2018 that Dhaka loses 3.2 million working hours per year due to congestion on the road costing billions of dollars.
According to the Dhaka-based Road Safety Foundation 2022 statistics, more than 43% of the 6,829 nationwide road accidents were motorbike incidents.
The newcomer bikers often upset their clients as they are not acquainted with city traffic or rules and are often consequently bullied by passengers.
Prominent human rights activist Nur Khan Liton said it is only “humane” to consider the situation of such ghost case fugitives.
“I don’t see them going back home anytime soon. We must accommodate them as they have nowhere to go,” he said.
