1,318 firearms looted during July Uprising still missing

More than two years after thousands of firearms were looted from police stations and other security facilities during Bangladesh’s political upheaval in August 2024, authorities are still searching for a significant portion of them.

According to data from Police Headquarters, at least 1,318 firearms and 257,139 rounds of ammunition remained unaccounted for. The weapons were taken from police stations, outposts, police boxes and other police facilities across the country as the Awami League government fell on Aug. 5, 2024.

In all, 5,763 firearms and 652,008 rounds of ammunition were looted, according to police records. The haul included rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, pistols, shotguns and gas guns, as well as tear-gas launchers, grenades and ammunition of different calibers.

A joint recovery operation began Sept. 4, 2024, less than a month after the looting. By July 5 this year, authorities had recovered 4,445 firearms and 394,869 rounds of ammunition. But the recovery has slowed, leaving more than a fifth of the looted firearms still missing.

Some of the weapons that disappeared from police custody have since surfaced in criminal activities. In Chattogram, a pistol was recovered after a mob incident Satkania last year.

Police found the weapon at the scene after two men were killed in the lynching on March 3. One of the victims, Nezam Uddin, had allegedly fired the pistol before the attack, injuring four people, including a local shopkeeper.

Investigators later determined that the pistol had been looted from Kotwali police station under Chattogram Metropolitan Police. The investigation also led to an arrest of a police constable.

Constable Md Riyad, who was then posted in Chandpur and was a resident of Satkania, was arrested along with five others in Patenga and Bakalia on March 21 last year. Police said they recovered a foreign-made pistol and seven rounds of ammunition from the group.

Investigators said the pistol was looted from Lohagara police station. Riyad was suspended after his arrest, and he and two associates later gave confessional statements before a Chattogram court.

Police arrested Saidur Rahman Masum, also known as Red Masum, 28, in Chattogram’s Jelepara-Rani Rashmoni Ghat area on June 19  last year. A pistol and four rounds of ammunition were recovered from him.

According to Chattogram Metropolitan Police, Masum led a major criminal gang in the city. Police said the pistol had been looted from Pahartali police station and had been used by Masum and his associates in snatching, robbery and other crimes.

Police have also arrested other suspects accused of using firearms looted during the 2024 upheaval in killings and extortion, according to media reports.

A total of 94 shotguns and Chinese rifles were looted from prisons, according to the data. Twenty of those weapons had still not been recovered. The prison breakouts created another security challenge. 683 escaped prisoners remained at large, according to sources.

Meanwhile, a bench of Justice Razik-Al-Jalil and Justice Md Anwarul Islam on March 5 directed the government to explain why effective steps should not be taken to accelerate the recovery of firearms and ammunition looted from police stations and other law-enforcement offices during the 2024 uprising.

The order followed a public-interest writ petition citing media reports that about 5,750 firearms and 651,609 rounds of ammunition had been looted.

The court invoked Article 32 of Bangladesh’s Constitution, which protects the right to life and personal liberty, arguing that the state has a responsibility to protect citizens from the consequences of the weapons remaining in circulation.