Opinion: Baffled by police stories

In the last few days we were baffled by police versions of various crimes. Take the latest murder of Police Super Babul Akhter's wife Mitu's murder.

A mysterious way it was when, Mitu, wife of Babul, was hacked and shot to death early in the morning while she was going to drop her child to school. 

Immediately, police said it was an act of the militants. Praises were heaved on the police officer for his brave actions against militants. But a few days since then, police did not utter the name of militants again, rather various other suggestions were made.

Finally, as promptly as they could, they caught the alleged killers and claimed that the killers did it for money. Interestingly they did not say anything about who paid them to kill Mitu. We can assume that the answer sits safely with the police and yet we were fed a half-baked solution to the mystery.

It is shocking to know that at least one (some newspapers mention two) of the killers were police informants. This says a lot of how our police force is working. When they are entrusted to catch the criminals, police are actually harbouring these elements to use them as 'source'.

We know police in other countries also have their contacts in crime rings. But the relationship is not as insidious as it is in our case.

The other recent case that had raised questions and now has been almost forgotten is the Uttara Canal arms haul. The police version also raises a lot of unanswered questions. Police say militants afraid of the ongoing anti-militancy drive dumped the ammo in the lake.

The simple answer is questionable as we find during this drive militants had dared to openly slap posters on Dhaka walls. It was during this drive that a few were killed by militants. It is hard to believe that they dumped so many guns into the lake just out of fear. If they had such an elaborate plan and ways to bring in the arms, they could as well stash them somewhere safely.

The other incidents are also throwing up a lot of questions like the recent 'gunfights'. A militant who was caught red-handed gets killed within a day of his remand makes all wonder why it was handled that way.

The chance of a wanted killer militant getting killed when police open fire on an anonymous fleeing motorbike is so little that it is reviled on the street.

Now all these things are causing deep concern in us and make us weary as to what is going on inside our police department.