Forced retirement: A signal to admin and police?
The government yesterday sent three superintendents of police into retirement, citing public interests, two days after it showed the information secretary the door on the same grounds.
Highly placed sources in the government said the three were forced into retirement as part of a possible purge in the administration and police, keeping in mind the next general election.
The three are Delwar Hossain Mia and Mirza Abdullahel Baqui of the Criminal Investigation Department and Shahidullah Chowdhury of Police Headquarters.
Delwar was supposed to retire on June 4, 2026; Shahidullah on December 31, 2023; and Baqui on February 28, 2023.
The home ministry yesterday issued three circulars signed by Akhter Hossain, senior secretary of its Public Security Division. All invoked section 45 of Bangladesh Service Rules, 2018.
According to the section, upon the president's approval, the government can send an employee, who has completed 25 years of service, into retirement in public interest, without showing any specific reason.
The government has already made a list of bureaucrats and police officials who, it perceives, are not "aligned to the ruling Awami League's ideology", and many of them might be forced into retirement in phases, the sources added.
These officials had been in the administration and the police during the last two national polls, but the government did not bother much then. This time, it does not want them around, given the anti-incumbent mood stemming from worries over the state of economy and the power crisis, said the sources .
The government is now closely watching the reaction of its decisions. Once it is convinced repercussions won't be that severe, it will go full throttle, said the sources.
Of the three SPs, Shahidullah Chowdhury and Delwar Hossain are from the 12th BCS.
Delwar got his promotion as an SP after 21 years of service, whereas at least three of his batchmates are working as additional inspector general of police, the second highest post in the force.
At least two of Baqui's 15th BCS batchmates now hold the rank of additional IGP.
Talking to The Daily Star, Baqui and Delwar said they knew nothing about why they had been let go.
"I came to know about the order unofficially … I haven't yet been told of any reason," Baqui said as The Daily Star contacted him for his comments.
Asked about his alleged links with a political party, Baqui said there is no scope for being involved in politics while in civil service.
Delwar told The Daily Star he had nothing to say. "I got a promotion after 21 long years of my service, and now I am having to go [four years] before my service life was to end."
According to sources in the police, the three were sent into retirement due to their alleged links with the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
The police sources also said at least two officials of the ranks of deputy inspector general and additional DIG might lose their jobs.
They added that this move by the government is designed to send a signal to other officials.
The developments over the last three days have caused discomfort among many bureaucrats and police officials who were recruited during the BNP-Jamaat tenures.
After the forced retirement of the information secretary, whispers pervade the Secretariat, but none would make any comments in public.
Even Bangladesh Administrative Service Association, an organisation of civil bureaucrats, didn't issue any formal statement after Information Secretary Mokbul Hossain's force retirement.
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