Joint forces swing into action soon

Trackback URL

Download PDF

Joint forces will launch a massive drive to arrest criminals and recover illegal firearms to improve law and order ahead of the January 22 parliamentary elections.

Armed forces, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), police, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Ansar will start the drive in four to five days on the basis of list of criminals prepared by police and the Rab, sources said.

For the first time after formation on March 26 in 2004, the elite Rab will be engaged to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for holding a free and fair election alongside the armed forces, police, BDR and Ansar, sources said.

The Election Commission (EC) arranges a high level meeting at the EC Secretariat tomorrow to discuss ways of the special drive and work out a coordinated plan among the law enforcement agencies and the armed forces.

Chiefs of the army, navy and air force, top brass of police, Rab, BDR, Ansar and coastguard and heads of intelligence agencies will participate in the meeting to review the law and order situation ahead of the polls. Seven secretaries including the cabinet and home secretaries will also attend the meeting.

The participants will try to find out coordinated plans to keep law and order under control while the EC will give them guidelines with the focus on ensuring security to voters, EC secretariat sources said.

Sources in the police and Rab said they had earlier launched a drive to arrest criminals, especially those possessing illegal firearms but their drive did not get any momentum as the law enforcers had to remain busy in checking political violence.

Rab sources said their intelligence unit has already prepared a list of over 1000 criminals across the country. Besides, police stations across the country have their own list of criminals.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner ABM Bazlur Rahman recently said there are around 500 criminals on the police list that was updated after the caretaker government took over. Replying to a question, he said from the earlier list of around 350 criminals, some have been excluded while others included.

Around 137 criminals on the list are involved in firearms and ammunition dealing, said a source.

Most of the teenage criminals are guided by ringleaders of criminal gangs, said a Rab official.

Police sources said this time the joint forces will launch block raid in a whole district or a vast area so that the criminals cannot escape arrest and their illegal firearms can be seized.

The restive southwest region of the country is the prime target of the crackdown while major cities including the capital and Chittagong and the adjoining areas will be given special priority.

The home ministry on Sunday issued a circular asking all to submit their licensed firearms within December 28. The special drive to recover illegal firearms will be launched after the deadline for submitting the licensed firearms ends, police and Rab officials said, adding that sometimes they face problem to recover illegal firearms due to the presence of licensed firearms.

There are around 22 thousand licensed firearms in the country. Of those licences for 1,274 were issued during the immediate past BNP-led four party coalition government. After the 2001 general elections 4,513 firearms that were not submitted to the police stations became traceless. Later the government cancelled licences of those firearms.

A drive is already on and it will be strengthened in future, spokesman for the police headquarters Assistant Inspector General Motiur Rahman Sheikh told The Daily Star yesterday.

Leave a Reply