The government on Tuesday awarded over 80 police personnel who were engaged in foiling opposition rallies and supressing labour unrests.
According to the police headquarters, eight senior and mid ranking officers, including Motijheel division assistant commissioner Golam Ruhani, were awarded for their role for maintaining law and order on December 7, 2022.
On December 7, 2022, an activist was shot dead and more than 100 were injured as the police clashed with activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, stormed into the BNP office and arrested dozens, including senior BNP leaders in Dhaka days before their scheduled mass rally in the capital on December 10, 2022.
This year, 400 police personnel, including 73 from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, received the Bangladesh Police Medal and the President’s Police Medal.
Awarding in person to half of them at a ceremony at Razarbagh Police Lines in the capital, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, congratulated all the awardees and thanked the police force for maintaining order.
At least three officials were awarded for their role in bringing ‘solution’ or maintaining order during the latest protests in the readymade garment sector in October–November 2023, in which four workers were killed and scores injured, mostly in Gazipur, demonstrating for a minimum monthly wage of Tk 23,000. The government later fixed the wage at Tk 12,500.
The citation prepared by the police headquarters read Gazipur police superintendent Kazi Shafiqul Alam was awarded with Bangladesh Police Medal (services) for his role in bringing peaceful solution during the workers protests.
The citation further read that with the direct instigation of some vested interest groups, the demonstration was worsening when at his instruction 55 ‘miscreants’ were arrested, 15 cases were filed and police patrols were intensified, to achieve a ‘peaceful solution’.
During his service at the detective branch (north) in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at the rank of additional deputy commissioner, Kazi Shafiqul Alam was awarded the same medal for his role in the arrest of acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam and protesters of the road safety movement.
This year, the police citation book also read Shafiqul arrested 256 ‘miscreants’ in 24 cases, who tried to foil the January 7 election with the connivance of local and international conspirators.
The government awarded 14 others for their roles in maintaining order on October 28, 2023 when the police foiled the Bangladesh Nationalist Party mass rally and locked into clash that resulted in a number of deaths and injuries of several hundred activists, leading to a crackdown in which around 25,000 opposition leaders and activists were arrested in the run up to the elections.
Constable Aminul Islam of the counter terrorism and transnational crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, who was killed during the clash, was awarded with BPM posthumously.
A number of officers, including Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, the then deputy commissioner for Ramna crime division, were also awarded.
Ashraf was awarded for saving the Chief Justice residence and also the Judges Quarters in Kakrail.
Detective Branch deputy commissioner for Uttara Akramul Hossain was awarded for his role in making the arrest of politically important persons linked to the political violence on October 28, 2023.
Muhammad Masud Rana, additional police commissioner for crime and operations at the Sylhet Metropolitan Police, was awarded for producing witnesses in 191 political violence related cases filed in 2013 and onward.
Mohammad Anisur Rahman, a special superintendent of police posted at the Special Branch, was awarded for his advanced intelligence reports and preparing profiles of those who residing in the country or abroad had spread ‘propaganda’ on social media platforms especially facebook and Youtube.
He also prepared profiles of those ‘controversial’ media personalities and ‘religious instigators’ after analysing 5,759 talk-shows.
Tahsin Mashroof Hossain Mashfi, another special superintendent of police posted at Special Branch, was awarded for providing advanced intelligence about the anti-government and anti-state elements by using a USA made software ‘ArcGIS’ to foil sabotage.
He also prepared narratives to highlight the image of the government internationally.
Mohammad Talebur Rahman, director for Bangladesh Police Liberation War Museum, was awarded with PPM for his role in presenting the ‘correct history’ of the War of Independence in 1971.
New Age
