BGB to use firearms on petrol bomb carriers

The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has decided to use firearms on petrol bomb carriers on sight with the number of lives lost in political violence, especially in arson attacks, rising everyday.

“BGB men will injure one person carrying petrol bombs to save many who might suffer burn injuries once the attack is made. So, it will reduce the casualty,” BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said.

He was talking to the media after attending the newly introduced quarterly meeting at BGB Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.

All the members of the force deployed to maintain law and order across the country are equipped with lethal weapons, he added.

Eighty-five platoons of BGB are posted at different parts of the country at present while 70 more platoons are ready to join them in tackling the current violence. 

The BGB chief came up with the order as total 21 people were killed, mostly in petrol bomb attacks, so far during the countrywide nonstop blockade enforced by BNP-led 20-party alliance which started on January 5.

The alliance enforced the blockade in protest against the confinement of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in her Gulshan residence in the capital since January 3.