Photo: Collected
The government is trying various ways to bring the law and order situation under control after the student uprising. The weapons and ammunition looted from the police station during the agitation have not been fully recovered. They are in the hands of miscreants. In addition to recovering these weapons, the Ministry of Home Affairs has set a deadline of 3 September to suspend the weapons licenses issued by the Awami League government and submit them to the police station. A police source said that joint forces will conduct a special operation from 4 or 5 September as part of the surrender and recovering the weapons.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Moinul Islam said, "According to the instructions, all weapons must be submitted by 3 September today. After that, anyone having any weapon will be considered illegal. We will start operations to recover all types of illegal weapons as soon as possible after the specified time.
When asked whether the cooperation of the armed forces will be taken in the operation, he said, "Since they are in the field to assist the civil administration, their cooperation will also be taken in the operation if applicable." Weapons looted from police stations will be recovered. Moreover, criminals and killers of students will also be brought under the law.
The IGP said, "There are some problems in the force due to some ambitious police officers. Hopefully, everything will be fine in a short time.
A senior officer of the police headquarters said that since 16 July, the level of agitation in various parts of the country including Dhaka has become intense. The BGB was brought in to assist the police. Still the situation could not be brought under control. Miscreants vandalized Bangladesh Television building, metro rail station, elevated expressway, setu building, various police stations, police outposts and other important buildings, vandalized cars and set fire to them. The army was brought down by issuing a curfew to control the situation. But still the movement was not under control. 44 policemen died in the attack by miscreants. Most of the firearms were looted by killing them and attacking the police stations.
The official also said that during the agitation, it was seen that Awami League supporters also used legal and illegal weapons. They also fire on the students.
He said, 'We have also received information that more than one lakh arms licenses have been given in the last 15 years. All arms licenses have already been cancelled. A lot of weapons were also looted from the police station. Less than half of the weapons were recovered. If legal, illegal or police looted firearms are not submitted within the specified time, joint forces will conduct special operations across the country including Dhaka. Regarding this, we have made all kinds of preparations.
According to police sources, the announcement of submission of legal arms has created discomfort among various classes of people including industrialists, businessmen. Many see fear in their insecurities. Because many police stations and police outposts were attacked on the day of the fall of the government in the mass movement of students on 5 August. Many police installations were burnt and destroyed. The police did not return to full capacity.
But law enforcement officials say there is no cause for alarm. Police capability is back. Special operations or joint operations with the help of armed forces will be started to recover all types of weapons looted from legal and illegal police stations.
According to the information received from the Special Branch (SB) of the police in January this year, the number of legal arms across the country is 50,310. Among them, 45 thousand 226 personal weapons. Four thousand 683 pistols, 2 thousand 43 revolvers, 20 thousand 809 single-barreled guns, 10 thousand 719 double-barreled guns, 5 thousand 444 shotguns, 1 thousand 706 rifles and 4 thousand 6 other firearms.
The rest of the arms are licensed under the names of various financial and other institutions. According to the estimates, 10 thousand 215 of these weapons owned by the politicians. Awami League leaders and activists have 7 thousand 215 firearms. BNP activists have 2,587 and 79 legal firearms in the name of people involved in politics of other parties.
Muhammad Monirul Islam, OC of Mirpur Model Police Station in the capital, said, "Our police station has been completely burnt down due to fire." For this reason, legal arms users of Mirpur area are asked to contact Kafrul police station to submit arms. Apart from this, we do not have the information of licensees in Mirpur police station area as police station records were burnt. Efforts are underway to collect this information.
Kazi Golam Mostafa, OC of Kafrul police station said, "The legal receivers of weapons have been informed that they can submit their weapons to the police station by filing a general diary (GD) at any time."
Bhatara police station OC Mazharul Islam said, "Our police station has been attacked and many documents have been destroyed. Many have contacted us to surrender weapons. We are collecting them.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) sources said that most firearms were looted by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police during the students' movement. At that time, 1 thousand 898 firearms were looted from different police stations of the capital. The lost weapons include 348 Chinese rifles, 703 shotguns, 30 SMGs (T56 China model), 13 LMGs, 89 pistols (T-54 China), 560 pistols, 152 gas guns and 3 tear gas launchers.
Messenger/Disha
