Joint Ops Launched To Recover Looted Arms, 1654 Arms Still Missing

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina during the public uprising, criminals attacked over 500 police stations across the country, looting a large amount of arms and ammunition. Since Wednesday, September 4, a joint operation led by the army has been underway to recover these arms. It has been reported that over the past three days, 9,191 legal arms have been returned to police stations across eight divisions of the country. However, 1,654 legal weapons are still yet to be returned.

During the public uprising on August 5 and 6, a total of 5,829 arms of 11 types were looted. Of these, 3,063 have been recovered. The deadline for returning all types of legal arms was midnight on Tuesday. The recovered list includes both looted arms from various police stations and legally licensed arms whose licenses were suspended. After the deadline, a joint task force composed of the armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force), police, RAB, BGB, Coast Guard, and Ansar was formed to begin the arms recovery operation.

Before the operation began, on the night of September 3, the police headquarters reported that 5,829 different types of arms were looted from various police facilities across the country. Of these, 2,066 arms have not yet been recovered. In terms of ammunition, 606,742 rounds of various calibers were looted, with 320,660 still unrecovered. Among the 31,044 tear gas shells looted, 8,905 remain unrecovered. Additionally, 4,692 sound grenades were looted, with 2,576 still missing.

On Thursday evening, September 5, at around 7:30 PM, Assistant Inspector General Inamul Haque from the police media and public relations department stated that they had not yet received information about the joint operation from the operations branch of the police headquarters.

Another police official stated that the operation will continue until all looted and licensed firearms are recovered. Despite the operation not intensifying from Tuesday night, a more vigorous nationwide enforcement operation will commence from Friday.