Give us choppers to fight militancy

In a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday, police demanded an aviation wing for the force.

Additional Deputy Inspector General Md Moniruzzaman of the Police Headquarters said police need the aviation wing, be it small, to curb militancy.

Talking to The Daily Star, he said after they get information about militants' dens in remote areas, it takes the members of the counterterrorism unit hours to reach the spots. “If police had an aviation wing, they could reach the spots a lot faster.”

Rapid Action Battalion, a unit of the police force comprised of members of the air force, the army, the navy, police and Ansar, has two helicopters. 

Senior police officials yesterday met the prime minister at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre as part of the Police Week 2018 that began on Monday.

Moniruzzaman, whose department (intelligence and special affairs) traced a number of militant hideouts, including that of slain “Neo-JMB” chief coordinator Tamim Chowdhury in Narayanganj, urged the government to provide them with modern equipment for combating militancy.

He said 82 percent of the militants were radicalised and recruited via the internet.

Four other police officials, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Assaduzzaman Mia spoke at the meeting.

The DMP commissioner said the police organogram was imbalanced and had inconsistencies, reports UNB.

"As a result, overall supervision, including maintaining domestic discipline, law and order, and intensive supervision, is being hampered, affecting the maintenance of public safety," he said.

He also said officers stuck in one post for a long time had psychological implications.

Assaduzzaman said grade-1 and -2 officials in the police force were fewer compared to other cadre services.

"Grade-1 officials in other cadres are between 1.17 and 4.45 percent and it is 5-10 percent for grade-2. But Bangladesh Police's grade-1 and -2 numbers are far less,” he said.

The DMP commissioner said there are 2,289 cadre posts in the police service but only two grade-1 post and 13 grade-2 posts.

He reminded the prime minister that she in Police Week 2017 had directed the officials concerned to take necessary steps to add three more grade-1 posts.

It has not been done in the last one year, he added.

"Due to the lack of vacant posts, more than 100 police officials are passing their days in grade-3 [DIG] and grade-4 [Additional DIG] after serving for 27-30 years with skill and professionalism," he added.

“Many others like me, who are at the end of their careers, are not getting additional IGP posts just for not having vacant posts," he regretted.

“Due to your [PM] foresight and support, we have been able to subdue militancy over the years, deal with the Hefajat mayhem in 2013, bomb explosions in 2014 and 2015. We risked our lives for rooting out militancy in 2016 and 2017,” Assaduzzaman told Hasina.

Comilla Superintendent of Police Shah Ali Hossain said court police personnel were still neglected and demanded separate buildings for the court police.

Rajbari SP Salma Begum stressed the need for increasing training facilities for police personnel.

In response to the demands, the prime minister said, “We do realise what needs to be done. Police cannot deliver services if they are not facilitated with training and manpower.”

Praising the police's counterterrorism efforts, Hasina said she expects the same level of strictness against narcotics.

She emphasised the need for sharing intelligence among agencies in anti-militancy efforts.

MEETING WITH MINISTERS

A senior police official at a meeting with five ministers last night once again demanded the government amend the Torture and Custodial Death (prevention) Act.

Drawing the attention of Law Minister Anisul Huq, Additional Inspector General (admin and operation) of Police Headquarters Mokhlesur Rahman said they have been raising the demand since the law was enacted in 2013.

According to some officials present at the meeting, he said the law mentioned about repression by inflicting mental torture, but there was no definition of mental torture.

“An accused will be hurt if a case is filed against him or if he is arrested or if he roams around a court. How will we ease the suffering?.... Above all, we are now in distress.”

The law minister said the definition should be clearer in some places and he would discuss the matter with the people concerned to take necessary measures.

Top police officials for the first time held such a meeting with a number of ministers marking the Police Week 2018.

On Monday, an officer-in-charge of a police station called upon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take measures for amending the Torture and Custodial Death (prevention) Act so that accused policemen can secure bail.

He also wanted inclusion of a provision in the law for taking action against anyone who files false cases or gives false deposition against law enforcers over any custodial torture and death.

Yesterday, Deputy Inspector General (operation) at the PHQ Mahbubur Rahman demanded a guideline for submitting documents to the deputy commissioner concerned seeking approval for filing any case under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said they often submit proposals to the government to increase police's capacity and the prime minister also thinks that expenditure on police is an investment.

“We want our ministries to take care of our proposals so that the proposals do not get stalled and the ministries forward them to other ministries concerned after completing the administrative tasks promptly.”

Drawing the attention of the planning minister, the police chief said the force gets around Tk 400 crore as its annual development budget.

He demanded the government increase the budget to Tk 1,000 crore.

Some officers demanded final approval of different projects, allocation of land for police establishments and provision of a training allowance at 30 percent of the basic salary for police like other cadre services.  

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif and State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique were present at the meeting at Rajarbagh Police Auditorium.

POLICE'S DEMAND WORRIES ASK

Rights body Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) yesterday expressed concern over the proposal to amend the law.

The organisation in a release said amending the law would hinder the human rights of the people in custody.

There were incidents of tortures and custodial deaths and several media outlets ran reports on those, the release said, adding that the law is important for the protection of detainees.

The 2013 legislation was passed to outlaw custodial torture and death and declare it a punishable criminal offence.