Bangladesh launches drive to recover looted weapons

Symbolic image Photo Credit: AP

Bangladeshi security forces have launched a campaign to recover thousands of guns, including those seized during deadly unrest that toppled autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, police said on Wednesday.

Weeks of student-led demonstrations spiraled into mass protests and Ms. Hasina fled by helicopter to neighbouring India on Aug. 5 after 15 years in power.

Police had tried to break up the protests with gunfire, but protesters responded by storming and looting police stations, following which weapons were confiscated.

Following the fall of Ms Hasina, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is now heading the interim government.

More than 3,700 weapons of various types were recovered during the gun surrender amnesty that ends Tuesday.

However, more than 2,000 weapons, including rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and hundreds of tear gas shells and stun grenades are missing.

“The weapons which are not deposited in police stations within the stipulated time… will be considered as looted weapons and will be considered illegal,” senior police officer Enamul Haque Sagar said.

The army and police as well as other security force units, including the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Ansar Force, are participating in the arms consignment.

Dhaka Police Deputy Commissioner Obaidur Rahman said two former top police officials have also been detained and placed on remand in connection with the violent suppression of the protests.

Both men are accused of murder, although formal charges have not yet been filed.

They include former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who resigned a day after Ms. Hasina fled, and have been taken into custody, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said in a statement late Tuesday.

Police said he had “expressed his wish to surrender while in Army custody – due to a case registered against him.”

He was placed on eight-day remand on Wednesday, Rehman said.

Rahman said another top official, AKM Shahidul Haque, who was police chief from 2014 to 2018, was detained on Tuesday and placed on seven-day remand.

According to a preliminary report by a UN human rights team, more than 600 people were killed in the weeks before Hasina stepped down, and said the number was “likely an underestimate.”

Many of those killed were shot dead by the police.