Police on Monday resumed their operations partially outside their stations in Dhaka and other places across the country six days after long-time ruler Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled to India on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising.聽
Police have been managing traffic in several parts of Dhaka city and other places in the country since morning, though they could not completely resume their crime prevention duties.
The police returned to work a day after the home聽 affairs adviser to the interim government, M Sakhawat Hossain, issued an ultimatum for them to join work by Thursday or be considered unwilling to continue.
In the absence of police at work, many crime incidents reportedly took place in the past week, including killings, attacks, vandalism, land grabbing, arson attacks, robberies, and looting of arms at police stations.聽
Students managed traffic, while people in groups guarded many areas with sticks and iron rods to prevent incidents of robbery.
Many people returned from police stations without being able to file cases or general diaries.
At about 2:00pm on Monday, Sakibul Islam, a trader at Jilani Supermarket, was seen waiting in the duty officer鈥檚 room to file a complaint against a person who he alleged grabbed his office hours after the fall of Hasina.聽
鈥業smail Hossain Sheikh also looted valuables and furniture worth Tk 15 lakh and Tk 2 lakh in cash. We could not reclaim it yet,鈥� said Sakibul.
He said that they were waiting for the return of the officer-in-charge of the police station before attempting to file a case but ended up only filing a general diary.
The police station duty officer, Ashraful Omar, said that they were only receiving general diaries but no cases yet. 聽
鈥榃e could not start our patrol duties in full swing as we have only two vehicles left for the job,鈥� said Ashraful, also a sub-inspector.
He said that they could not even go for police verification of information for passports at this moment.
On Sunday night, the DMP asked people to submit unlicensed firearms or bullets to the nearest police station at the earliest.
The release also said that keeping unlicensed arms or bullets was a punishable crime.聽
Operations at 628 police stations, out of 639, resumed across Bangladesh by 6:00pm on Sunday, according to the police headquarters.
Of the 110 police stations situated in metropolitan cities, 108 resumed operations, while among the 529 situated at the district level, 520 resumed operations, police headquarters said.
The police headquarters said that they would also resume activities in 11 other police stations soon.
According to some officials, the number of inoperative police stations was higher than police headquarters data showed.
According to DMP officials, they could not resume activities in four police stations 鈥� Jatrabari, Kadamtali, Uttara East, and Adabor.
DMP additional deputy commissioner for media and public relations, KN Roy Niyoti, said that there were no activities in Jatrabari, Kadamtali, and Uttara East police stations yet.
鈥榃e have been informed that some police stations have started operations renting nearby buildings,鈥� said Niyoti.聽
DMP Mohammadpur zone additional deputy commissioner Md Rawshanul Huq Saikat confirmed the closure of Adabor police station, adding that cleaning activities were still underway there.聽
On Sunday, Inspector general of police Md Mainul Islam said that at least 42 police personnel, including three inspectors and two members of the Rapid Action Battalion, were killed in violence in July-August.
Attacks on police personnel were mostly carried out after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, as people vented their anger at the police firing indiscriminately at protesters during the quota protests.聽
Following the resignation of Hasina, police personnel demonstrated in Dhaka and placed an 11-point charter of demands before the return of duties.
Their demands included the trial of some top-ranked officials who forced them to fire at students during quota protests.