Surrender deadline ends: Many weapons still at large

After the fall of Awami League government due to mass uprising of students and public, protesters attacked and set fire to various police stations across the country. During the chaos, miscreants looted a large number of weapons and ammunition from these stations.

Later, the government set  September 3 as the deadline for surrendering these looted arms and announced that a joint force will launch operations from September 4 to recover the looted and illegal arms.

Following this, a joint force, including Bangladesh Army, Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defense Party, Coast Guard, and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), launched operations to recover these illegal arms from Wednesday midnight (September 4)

According to Police Headquarters, a total of 5,829 weapons were looted across the country, including in Dhaka. As of September 3, 3,763 of these weapons have been recovered. However, 2,066 weapons, including rifles, SMGs, LMGs, and pistols, remain unrecovered. Additionally, over 300,000 rounds of looted ammunition have yet to be retrieved.

Enamul Haque Sagar, AIG (Media & PR) of Police Headquarters, provided these details on Sunday (September 1).

The list of recovered and unrecovered looted weapons and ammunition:

Weapons:

China rifles: 809 recovered, 338 unrecovered.

Bangladeshi rifles: 9 recovered, 1 unrecovered.

SMGs: 185 recovered, 66 unrecovered.

LMGs: 21 recovered, 11 unrecovered.

Pistols: 707 recovered, 849 unrecovered.

9×19 mm SMG/SMTs: 32 recovered, 1 unrecovered.

Shotguns: 1,568 recovered, 622 unrecovered.

Gas guns: 425 recovered, 168 unrecovered.

Tear gas launchers (Six-Shot): 6 recovered, 8 unrecovered.

Signal pistols: 1 recovered, 2 unrecovered.

Ammunition:

Various caliber bullets: 286,082 rounds recovered, 320,660 unrecovered.

Tear gas shells: 22,139 recovered, 8,905 unrecovered.

Tear gas grenades: 704 recovered, 751 unrecovered.

Sound grenades: 2,116 recovered, 2,576 unrecovered.

Color smoke grenades: 213 recovered, 78 unrecovered.

Multiple bang stun grenades: 18 recovered, 37 unrecovered.

Flash bang grenades: 533 recovered, 360 unrecovered.

Handheld tear gas sprays (Canisters): 94 recovered, 83 unrecovered.