More than a thousand firearms looted from police stations during the August 2024 political changeover remain untraced when law enforcers are struggling to keep law and order.
The number of political violence, robberies, dacoity, riots, and thefts has increased recently, and the untraced firearms and ammunition have been posing a fresh threat of worsening the situation.
The police are yet to recover 1,375 firearms, out of 5,753, looted from police stations across the country during the violence after the ouster of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.
The looted firearms of different types are now mostly in the hands of criminals and are used in criminal activities outside the capital, police officials said.
The firearms that could not be recovered include 115 Chinese rifles, one BD-08 rifle, 30 Chinese SMGT, three Chinese LMGT, 215 Chinese 7.62x25mm pistols, 464 聽9脳19mm pistols, 405 shotguns, 133 gas guns, seven teargas shell launcher and two 26mm signal pistol, according to the Police Headquarters data updated on April 20.
The data also showed that 6,12,982 ammunitions of different types were looted during the time and 2,57,849 were yet to be recovered.
About one month after the AL鈥檚 ouster, the interim government on September 4, 2024, began a countrywide joint operation to recover looted weapons and ammunition.
Additional inspector general of police for crimes and operations Khondoker Rafiqul said that they had recovered a good number of looted firearms but failed to trace the rest ones.
鈥業t is not possible all the time to recover 100 per cent,鈥� he added.
Looted firearms were found used in criminal activities including murders, muggings and robberies.
鈥業f the firearms remain in the hands of the criminals, it is normal that the number of crime incidents will increase,鈥� said former inspector general of police Nurul Huda.
鈥楻ecovery of the looted firearms should be the government鈥檚 top priority. If otherwise, it will be difficult to maintain law and order and make the forthcoming general election peaceful,鈥� he added.
According to PHQ crime statistics, 131 cases were filed under the Arms Act in March. The number was 101 in February.
The data showed that 171 robbery cases were reported across the country in March but the number was 153 in February.
A total of 74 dacoity cases were reported in March though the number was 60 in February, 16 riot cases were reported in March and the number was 10 in February, the data showed.
It showed that 866 cases for theft were reported in March and the number was 673 in February, the data showed.
The country has been witnessing an increased number of political violence and incidents of such violence have become deadlier.
A total of 36 people were killed in political violence between January and March and, of them, 20 were killed in March and eight each were killed in February and January, according to rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra data uploaded on its website on April 22.
On March 6, Chattogram聽 district superintendent of police Saiful Islam Santu said that a firearm recovered from the scene of a mob beating incident in Satkania on March 3 was a weapon looted from the Kotwali police station under the Chattogram Metropolitan Police.
On March 3, two individuals were allegedly beaten to death by a mob in Chankhola Churamani village under Eochia union in Satkania upazila on suspicion of being robbers. Five others sustained gunshot wounds in the incident.
Locals in the capital鈥檚 Mohamamdpur area said that the looted firearms from Mohammadpur and Adabor police stations went to the criminals.
Mohammadpur police station officer-in-charge Ali Iftekhar Hasan said that most of the firearms looted from the police stations were not recovered.
鈥榃e have recovered some firearms as they were left abandoned. Most of the arms went outside Dhaka and are being used there. I think that many arms were sold to the criminals outside the capital,鈥� OC Ali Iftekhar said.聽
On January 31, police recovered the body of a young girl at a service lane on the highway at Shamspur area under Sreenagar upazila in Munshiganj.
Later, the police arrested the victim鈥檚 lover Tauhid Sheikh Tonmoy from the Ilisha area in Bhola and found that a pistol looted from Wari police station in Dhaka was used in the killing, according to police officials.
Asked about the matter of using looted firearms in criminal activities, PHQ additional IGP Khondoker Rafiqul said that they investigated the incidents where firearms were used.
鈥榃e tried to identify whether the firearms were looted, licensed or unlicensed,鈥� he added.聽
According to the officials of the Department of Prisons, they were yet to recover 28 firearms, out of 94, looted during jailbreaks during the student-mass uprising.
The jail authorities on March 10 had said that at least 2,200 inmates had fled after breaking jails immediately before and immediately after the fall of the AL regime on August 5, 2024 and nearly 1,500 of the jailbreakers either surrendered or were arrested by the law enforcement agencies until the day.
Inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Syed Md Motaher Hossain told 抖阴精品 on Saturday that there was no significant progress in arresting jail breakers and the number is about 700 till now.
鈥楢t least 69 extremists and death row convicts who fled from jails and are yet to be arrested are now a threat to maintaining law and order,鈥� he added.