September 4, 2024
DHAKA – Despite repeated calls by the government to submit the looted firearms and bullets to nearby police stations, over 3 lakh bullets and 2,000 guns remain missing.
The government conducts a joint drive, comprising the members of armed forces, BGB, Coast Guard, police, Rab, and Ansar, across the country to recover the arms from today.
The drives begins from 12:00am as yesterday was the last day to hand over the guns, including those whose licences have been suspended, said Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury after the first meeting of the advisory council on law and order at the Secretariat yesterday.
After the fall of Hasina-led government on August 5 amid an uprising, mobs looted firearms and bullets from different police stations and establishments across the country.
Since August 12, the Police Headquarters asked several times to hand over the guns and bullets and the deadline to do it ended yesterday.
According to the PHQ data, 5,829 firearms and 6,06,742 bullets were looted from police, different police stations, and establishments.
Of those, 3,763 guns and 2,86,082 bullets were recovered, meaning that 2,066 arms and 3,20,660 bullets remain missing.
The guns include rifles (Chinese), SMGs, pistols, shotguns, teargas launchers, and signal pistols.
The PHQ data shows 31,044 teargas shells, 1,455 teargas grenades, 4,692 sound grenades, 291 smoke grenades, 55 stun grenades, 893 multiple bang stun grenades, and 177 teargas spray were also looted.
Of those, 22,139 teargas shells, 704 teargas grenades, 2,116 sound grenades, 213 color smoke grenades, 18 stun grenades, 533 multiple bang stun grenades, and 94 teargas sprays have been recovered so far.
“We will also recover the illegal firearms, along with the looted ones, during the joint drive,” Md Rezaul Karim, deputy inspector general of the PHQ, told The Daily Star.
Home ministry sources said the government on August 25 suspended licences of firearms issued to civilians during the tenure of the AL government — January 6, 2009, and August 5, 2024.
The government has made the decision as people, especially members of the AL and its affiliated bodies, opened fired indiscriminately to suppress the peaceful student movement, according to sources in the police and home ministry.
The time to submit those firearms also ended yesterday. The arms will be considered illegal, and those who keep the guns must face legal action, said a top official of the home ministry.
The Special Branch (SB) of police has around 50,310 legal arms licence holders in its database. However, the officials are yet to ascertain how many licences were issued by the AL government.
“We will include the information of the submitted guns in the database tomorrow [today] and then we can say how many arms remain missing,” said another top PHQ official, wishing not to be named.
Md Kamrul Ahsan, additional DIG (confidential) of the PHQ, told this newspaper that these firearms are state property. People should hand over the guns and give information regarding them to the nearby police stations whenever anyone gets any information.