Police upbeat about success despite criticism of harassment
“Police should do groundwork and investigation before launching a special drive. You can’t just arrest whoever you want. But unfortunately this is happening as we have failed to ensure accountability of police,” Nur Mohammad told this newspaper.
“When you are arresting someone on suspicion you should say why you are suspecting the person. Who takes the responsibility when thousands of people are arrested without specific charges and suffer?”
One good thing about such crackdowns is that the perpetrators remain on the run and their activities come to a halt, Nur Mohammad said. As a result, he added, law and order improves.
He further said lack of training, expertise and professionalism are also to blame for the failure of the drive against militancy.
Terming the recent targeted killings a new trend, he hoped that police would put all its strength to stop the attacks.
Since the beginning of the drive on June 10 till Wednesday, 11,684 people, including 166 suspected militants, were arrested, according to a statement of police headquarters.
The police headquarters on Wednesday also said that “another special drive” to arrest wanted accused and arms and narcotics traders and users began on June 6 and ended on June 13. Police never had informed the media about this “another special drive” before.
‘SUCCESSFUL’
About the anti-militancy drive, home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said it was meant to stop targeted killings.
“The drive is one of the means to stop targeted killing. We have arrested wanted accused, suspects and some identified militants,” the home boss told reporters at his residence in the capital.
He added, the process to arrest them began long ago and “We have been successful.”
Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said they had launched a drive against wanted accused, arms and drug dealers and all other criminals ahead of Eid like every year.
“Then in the wake of some incidents involving militants in Chittagong, Natore and Jhenidah, we launched another crackdown targeting homegrown militants,” he told BBC Bangla Service yesterday.
Replying to a query, the IGP said the arrestees include those who were directly involved in different banned militant organisations.
The number of arrested militants in the weeklong drive is big, he added.
He thinks the homegrown militants are not that much organised. “I don’t think they will be able to carry out any massive attacks.”
“We have not found the organisations or who are leading the groups,” he said, adding that it’s no big challenge.
The IGP also said not even 20 percent of the total militants arrested so far are from madrasas. They want to establish caliphate but they do not have a minimum knowledge about it.
Source: The Daily Star
