Maximum Tk 2 lakh reward offered for looted firearms

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said on Saturday that, the government has stepped up efforts to recover looted and illegal firearms across the country by forming a special unit and announcing rewards for information leading to the recovery of weapons.  

The unit has already started working with intelligence support from different agencies, he said, adding that the government has taken some new strategies to make the operations more effective.

The Home Minister made the remarks while talking to reporters after attending the quarterly crime review meeting at the Bangladesh Police Auditorium at Rajarbagh in the capital.

Salahuddin Ahmed said, “We have formed a special unit to recover illegal firearms. With intelligence support from different agencies, they have already started working. We have given them advice to make the operation stronger.”

The government has also announced rewards for those who provide information leading to the recovery of looted and illegal weapons, he said.

A person providing information that helps recover heavy weapons will receive a maximum reward of Tk 2 lakh. Those providing information about pistols, revolvers and shotguns will receive up to Tk 50,000.

For information leading to the recovery of sound grenades, looted tear gas shells and other weapons, rewards ranging from Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000 will be given depending on the type of weapon.

The minister assured that the identity of the informants would be kept confidential and their security would be ensured. He said ordinary people would not come forward to provide information if their identities were not kept secret.

Salahuddin Ahmed said operations to recover illegal and looted firearms were already underway across the country. Special drives would also be conducted against drug trafficking, terrorists, criminals and extortionists, he said.

The government has taken some strategies to strengthen the operations, but the details of those strategies would not be disclosed now for security reasons, the minister said. He expressed hope that the government would achieve success in the operations very soon.

He also said action would be taken against officials who fail to control extortion, terrorism and drugs within a set timeframe. However, the deadline given to the concerned officials has not yet expired.

Regarding firearms whose licences had been cancelled, the minister said those who failed to surrender the weapons within the government-set deadline had already faced cases for possessing illegal firearms.

“These are also illegal weapons,” he said, adding that the authorities would recover those firearms as well.
Asked about weapons that had already been taken across the border, Salahuddin Ahmed said Bangladesh Police could not conduct operations inside another country.

“If a weapon crosses into another country, our police cannot go there and conduct an operation. We will recover the weapons that we find inside the country,” he said.

The Home Minister also said the quarterly crime review meeting discussed the law and order situation, internal problems of the police, progress in development projects and strategies to control crime.

Senior Secretary of the Home Ministry Monjur Morshed Chowdhury, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ali Hossain Fakir and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed were present at the briefing.