Eminent citizens on Thursday said that democracy and political will would reduce the gap between the police and the people that was widened as a result of using the force against students and people during the student-led July uprising.
The police force should be free from politicisation, they said at a discussion titled 鈥楶eople鈥檚 police in citizens thoughts: security and bonding of trust鈥� at the Bangladesh Police Auditorium at Rajarbagh in the capital on the third day of the 4-day Police Week.
This year鈥檚 four-day Police Week programme themed 鈥極ur police, our country: discrimination-free Bangladesh鈥� ended May 2.
Presenting the keynote speech, writer Professor Salimullah Khan said, 鈥楾he police are not a part of the state machinery, but a part of the society. We have to go to the root of the gap between the police and the people, but it is a division between the people and the state. And the solution to the problem is democracy.鈥�
Salimullah slammed arrest of people without warrant under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on mere suspicion in violation of Supreme Court directives.
He said that the police must not be put into confrontation with people.
Dhaka University peace and conflict studies associate professor Sazzad Siddiqui said that misuse of the force by the state power must be stopped.
鈥業f the police work independently, that will help its image improve,鈥� he said.
Former police inspector general Nurul Huda asked if those in state power were not politically good-willed, how the police could work properly.
He said that the existing relation of chase and counter chase between the police and the people must change.
鈥楾he police need to realise that bringing out a procession for a just cause is not a criminal offence and please don鈥檛 do anything anymore when a police officer, while discovering the multiple-bullet-wound body of his son in a hospital morgue, would make a phone call to his senior, asking, 鈥渉ow many bullets one needs to kill a boy?鈥濃�� said 抖阴精品 editor Nurul Kabir.
Former IGP Abdul Qayyum said that he could not even imagine the things happened between 2009 and 2024.
鈥楨arlier, there was no democracy, but we could provide service to the people. We did not become security guards like the past 15 years,鈥� he added.
Political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman, a member of former Electoral Reform Commission, said that the police had to struggle to avoid obeying the unjust orders of the political parties in power.
In his welcome speech, inspector general of police Baharul Alam said that history taught them that the people鈥檚 confidence was the power of the police, not arms.
Chaired by Special Branch chief Golam Rasul, also an additional inspector general of police, Public Service Commission member Chowdhury Saima Ferdous, Apex Footwear Limited managing director Syed Nasim Manzur, Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Fahmida Khatun, lyricist Shahidullah Faraizee and musician Farzana Wahid Shayan, among others, shared their views at the event.
On Tuesday, the inaugural day of Police Week, the Bangladesh Police proposed the formation of an independent commission to make decisions on the force鈥檚 activities, except administrative ones.
The law enforcement agency gave the proposal to chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the inaugural ceremony of Police Week 2025
According to the proposal, the police commission would run the force鈥檚 activities, including appointment, posting and promotion, while excluding the administrative decisions, Inspector General of Police Baharul Alam conformed to 抖阴精品.
The force also held a meeting with home adviser retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury at which it placed several other demands.
The demands include 100 per cent risk allowance for the posts of constable to inspector general of police, which is now designated for the posts of constables to sub-inspectors, increased capacity in the in-service training centres, procuring more vehicles and accommodation facilities in all units.聽
Home adviser assured them for the government move to procure 200 vehicles.
Following the political changeover on August 5, 2024, police Headquarters officials said that 450 out of 664 police stations were attacked, vandalised and set on fire across the country, following the downfall of the Hasina government.
They also said that about 1,000 vehicles were damaged, many among them completely destroyed.
聽About nine months after the ouster of authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 in a student-led mass uprising, the country鈥檚 police force is yet to resume its operation in full swing because of its reduced logistics and capacity.
