At 2 am, a highway should be little more than a stretch of asphalt connecting one place to another. In Bangladesh, however, darkness can transform parts of that same road into a zone of uncertainty—and sometimes fear.

A vehicle slows down. A tree or other obstruction appears on the road. Stones or bricks are hurled at the windscreen. The driver is forced to stop. Armed men emerge from the darkness. What follows may be robbery. It may also become a fatal crash.

This is not simply a story about criminals preying on travellers. It is a story about whether the state can anticipate, prevent and respond to threats on one of the country's most important pieces of public infrastructure.

Highways are the arteries of Bangladesh's economy. Agricultural produce moves to markets through them; factories receive raw materials; export goods travel towards ports; millions of people depend on them for inter-district travel.

A highway that is unsafe after dark therefore imposes a cost far beyond the immediate loss suffered by a victim. It undermines public confidence, disrupts transport, increases business risk and raises a fundamental question of state capacity.

The criminals are adapting. Are we?

Highway robbery is no longer necessarily a simple matter of criminals waiting beside a deserted road.

Recent incidents show a range of tactics: trees or obstacles placed across roads to stop vehicles, stones or bricks thrown at moving cars, and criminals boarding buses as passengers before attacking travellers.

In early 2025, police reportedly prepared a list of 1,443 known highway robbers and moved to strengthen security on several highways. Robberies involving buses, microbuses and other vehicles were also reported in several districts.

The significance lies not in the individual incidents but in the pattern. When criminals repeatedly exploit the same weaknesses—dark stretches, isolated locations, predictable routes and slow response times—the problem is no longer merely individual criminality.

It is a system vulnerability.

And a system cannot be fixed by arrests alone.

The information advantages

One of the most worrying developments is the possibility that organised criminal groups are using information to identify targets. Police investigations have previously indicated that some robbery networks sought information about potential victims, including expatriate passengers returning home. In some cases, information may have been obtained through informal networks around transport hubs and roadside businesses. If true, this changes the nature of highway crime. A criminal with a weapon is dangerous.

A criminal with a weapon, a target and information about that target is considerably more dangerous. The security response must therefore go beyond patrols. It must include intelligence gathering, information analysis and disruption of the networks that feed criminals with information. The state must know more about organised highway crime than the criminals know about their victims.

Can highway police cover the ground?

The question after every highway robbery is predictable: Where was the police?

It is a legitimate question. But there is another one: Does the highway police have the resources necessary to cover the territory assigned to it?

A 2025 investigation highlighted manpower and patrol vehicle shortages. Some units were reportedly responsible for long stretches of highway with limited operational resources. This creates an obvious dilemma.

No police force can maintain the same level of physical presence on every kilometre of every highway.

The answer, therefore, is not simply more patrols everywhere.

It is risk-based policing.

Police deployment should follow evidence: where crimes occur, when they occur, what vehicles are targeted, where response times are longest, and which locations repeatedly appear in complaints. The objective should be to put more resources where the risk is highest.

CCTV is not security unless someone responds

Bangladesh has made important progress in technology-based surveillance. In 2026, authorities reported expanded CCTV and AI-enabled monitoring on the Dhaka–Chattogram and Dhaka–Mawa highways, including AI-equipped cameras at key locations.But cameras alone will not make highways safe. A camera can record a robbery. A smart surveillance system should help prevent one.

Consider a simple scenario. At 2:45am, several people move a large object onto a deserted section of highway. An AI-enabled camera detects unusual activity. A control room receives an alert. The nearest patrol unit receives the location. Other cameras monitor possible escape routes.

That is the architecture Bangladesh needs:

Detection → Alert → Response → Investigation

Without the response, surveillance is little more than a recording mechanism.

Response time is the real test

For highway crime, minutes matter. A police unit arriving half an hour after a robbery may find little more than evidence of what happened. A unit arriving within minutes has a realistic chance of preventing the crime, catching suspects or securing an escape route. Every high-risk highway section should therefore be divided into Rapid Response Zones, with designated patrol units, GPS tracking and measurable response-time targets.

The key performance indicator should not simply be how many police officers are deployed.

It should be:

How quickly can help reach a citizen in danger?

That is a much more meaningful measure of highway security.

Public transport must also be secured

Security cannot stop at the edge of the road. Long-distance buses and commercial vehicles should gradually be required to adopt basic safety technologies: GPS tracking, emergency panic buttons, internal CCTV and verified driver and assistant identities. If a driver faces an armed attack, the solution should not depend on whether he can make a phone call while under threat. One emergency signal should transmit the vehicle's identity and location directly to a control centre and the nearest response unit. The same infrastructure could support emergency response to road crashes, fires and medical incidents.

Dark roads create opportunity

It is neither practical nor necessary to illuminate every kilometreof Bangladesh's highways.

But crime-prone locations should receive priority. Bridges, culverts, sharp bends, U-turns, isolated bus stops, major junctions and known crime hotspots should be systematically identified and illuminated. Solar-powered smart lighting could help where conventional electricity infrastructure is difficult to maintain.Lighting is not simply a road-safety measure.

It is also crime prevention.

Darkness provides concealment. Reducing concealment reduces opportunity.

What happens after the robbery?

This may be the most important institutional question.

A robbery occurs. A case is filed. Suspects may be arrested. Then attention moves elsewhere.

But what has the state learned?

Was the location already known as a crime hotspot?

Why was the threat not detected?

How long did the police take to respond?

Could better lighting have helped?

Could a camera have detected the suspects?

Was there an intelligence failure?

Was the escape route predictable?

Every serious highway crime should trigger an After-Action Review.

The purpose should not simply be to assign blame. It should be about identifying weaknesses and fixing them.

A serious crime should produce institutional learning—not merely a case number.

The hidden problem of under-reporting

Official crime statistics may also understate the scale of the problem. Many victims do not report minor robbery or harassment because they want to avoid police procedures, travel or legal complications. Others may simply believe that reporting will make little difference. That creates a dangerous feedback loop. If incidents are not reported, crime maps become inaccurate. If crime maps are inaccurate, police deployment becomes less effective.

A simple Digital Highway Crime Reporting System could help address this gap. Passengers, drivers and transport operators could report the location, time, vehicle number and nature of an incident through a mobile platform. Over time, this could generate a dynamic Highway Crime Risk Map. The objective would be not merely to count crimes, but to identify patterns.

Highway security is economic security

The economic cost of highway robbery is much larger than the value of whatever is stolen from a passenger.

A truck carrying garments, food, machinery or industrial inputs is part of a larger supply chain. If it is attacked, goods may be lost, deliveries delayed, insurance costs increased and business confidence weakened.

Companies may also reduce nighttime movement on routes perceived as unsafe. That raises logistics costs.

For Bangladesh, where manufacturing and exports depend heavily on reliable transport, highway security is therefore part of economic competitiveness. The same logic applies to expatriate Bangladeshis. If a person returning from abroad feels unsafe travelling from the airport to home, the problem is not confined to one passenger. It affects confidence in public institutions and the country's image.

Ten reforms Bangladesh should consider

Bangladesh now needs to move from periodic crackdowns to a permanent highway security architecture.

1. National Highway Crime Risk Map:
Use several years of crime data to identify and classify high-risk locations.

2. Smart Highway Surveillance Grid:
Integrate CCTV with AI-based video analytics and automatic number-plate recognition.

3. Rapid Response Units:
Create dedicated units for high-risk zones with measurable response-time targets.

4. Highway Emergency SOS:
Introduce GPS-linked panic buttons in long-distance buses and commercial vehicles.

5. Dark Spot Elimination Programme:
Prioritise lighting at crime-prone and strategically vulnerable locations.

6. Highway Crime Intelligence Cell:
Strengthen intelligence on organised robbery networks and their information channels.

7. Safety-by-Design for Public Transport:
Expand GPS, CCTV, identity verification and emergency communication systems.

8. Mandatory After-Action Reviews:
Review every serious highway crime to identify and correct institutional weaknesses.

9. Highway Safety Performance Dashboard:
Track crime trends, response times and investigation progress through measurable indicators.

10. National Highway Safety Council:

Bring together police, highway police, Roads and Highways Department, BRTA, transport operators, emergency services and independent experts. These reforms should be phased rather than announced as another long list of promises. The first six months should focus on identifying hotspots, strengthening night patrols and establishing rapid-response capacity.

The next 6–18 months should focus on smart surveillance, digital reporting and GPS-linked emergency systems.

The following phase should institutionalise independent safety audits, performance monitoring and inter-agency coordination.

The real test of the state

Bangladesh already has access to technologies that were difficult to imagine a decade ago—AI-enabled cameras, GPS tracking, digital communications, automated number-plate recognition and data analytics.

If citizens still feel unsafe on a highway at 2am, the problem is therefore not simply a lack of technology.

It is a failure to connect the pieces.

Information must lead to decisions. Decisions must lead to rapid response. Technology must support both. And the entire system must be accountable. The Highway Police leadership has spoken about strengthening technology-driven, intelligence-led policing and improving operational capacity. That is welcome. But announcements and installations are not the ultimate measure of success.

The real test is much simpler:

If a citizen is in danger on a remote highway at 2am, will the state know? Will it respond quickly? And will it be able to hold the perpetrators accountable?

A highway can be wide, smooth and modern.

But if people are afraid to use it after dark, its development remains incomplete.

Highway robbery is therefore not merely a crime problem.

It is a test of policing, technology, infrastructure, accountability and economic resilience.

Above all, it is a test of state capacity.

Criminals may use darkness as their shield.

The state must respond with something stronger:

information, technology, rapid response and accountability.

Because the most important question is not simply why highway robbery continues.

It is whether, at two in the morning, an ordinary citizen can travel home on a Bangladeshi highway without fear.

That is the standard by which a modern state should ultimately be judged.

Highway robbery: A test of state capacity

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