The Bangladesh police have yet to recover 1,342 firearms and 2,57,287 bullets and explosives looted from different police stations during the August 2024 political changeover.
A press release issued from the Police Headquarters on Wednesday reaffirmed cash rewards for information and clues regarding the whereabouts of the looted arms cache.
The unrecovered firearms include 114 Chinese rifles, one BD-08 rifle, 31 Chinese SMGT, three Chinese LMGT, 207 Chinese 7.62x25mm pistols, 455聽 9x19mm pistols, 393 shotguns, 129 gas guns, seven teargas shell launchers and two 26mm signal pistols, according to the Police Headquarters data updated on October 27.
According to the police headquarters, total 5,763 firearms were looted during the uprising.
The data also showed that at the time 6,52,008 rounds and explosives of different types were looted of which 2,57,287 had yet to be recovered.
In the Wednesday press release, the force reiterated the government announcement that anyone providing information leading to the recovery of the looted firearms, ammunition and explosives would be rewarded with cash.
As per the announcement, a reward of Tk 5 lakh will be given for each recovered light machine gun, Tk 1.5 lakh for each sub-machine gun, Tk 1 lakh for each Chinese rifle and Tk 50,000 for each pistol and shotgun.
Besides, Tk 500 would be rewarded for every round of ammunition recovered, the press release said, adding that the identity of informants would be kept strictly confidential.
The PHQ urged potential informants to communicate with their nearby police stations. On August 25, the government announced cash rewards for information leading to the recovery of firearms looted during the mass uprising.
On August 5 past year, after the Awami League regime was toppled amid a student-led mass uprising, attacks were carried out on police stations, outposts and other police infrastructure across the country.
Police vehicles were torched and arms and ammunition were looted at that time.
About one month after the AL ouster, the interim government on September 4, 2024, began a countrywide joint operation to recover the looted weapons and ammunition.
