Slack monitoring by the authorities has spawned a nexus between criminals and the country’s legal arms dealers, as a result of which arms and ammunition are being frequently supplied to criminals by arms dealers and registered arms shops illegally in lieu of money. These startling findings have been disclosed in an investigation report by an intelligence agency.

Following allegations against registered arms dealers and a sections of law enforcement personnel that arms and ammunition were being supplied to criminals in lieu of huge sums of money, high-ranking officials of the Special Branch (SB) of police carried out a three-month-long investigation and found close links between the criminals, a section of the registered arms dealers, and some unscrupulous law enforcers.
Following the in-depth probe, the investigators pointed out that the use of illegal arms must be curbed for improving the law and order situation. The probe report was submitted to the ministry of home affairs in the last week of May.
The intelligence report revealed that professional criminals collect arms in the city from at least seven sources, and use these in criminal activities. The common ways of collecting arms are to make arms locally by using light engineering and development (LED) machines, to steal legal arms from their legal owners or obtain them through mugging, to take legal arms on rent from their owners and legal arms dealers, to smuggle arms from neighbouring countries through the land borders, and to collect arms from armouries with the help of close contacts with unscrupulous law enforcers in lieu of huge sums of money as bribes.
Besides, criminals also collect arms and ammunition from registered arms dealers by using fake arms licences, with their aid; from government-approved shooting clubs with the help of some unscrupulous employees; and also from the cache of recovered illegal arms keep in government armouries by different law enforcement agencies.
A high-ranking official of the Special Branch (SB) of police, who supervised the investigation report, said to The Independent on condition of anonymity, “We found that some unscrupulous registered arms dealers manufacture arms and supply these to criminals under the pretext of importing spare parts. Besides, they also sell arms and ammunition using fake arms licences.”
According to sources in the police headquarters, a total of 22 arms dealers, sales centres and repair shops are doing business in the city. Among these, 19 are registered arms dealers and sales centres, while two are repair-cum-sales centres, and the other one is merely a repairing shop.
The investigation revealed that M/S Noman and Sons, located at Mahbub Plaza on Topkhana Road, had sold bullets to the holder of a fake arms licence. The licence, owned by Wahidul Islam Chowdhury of Kobirhat in Noakhali (licence no. 28/Noa/2000), was a fake one. Under this licence, 25 rounds of 7.65 bore bullets were sold on June 5, 2012, 250 rounds on June 19, 2012 and 100 more bullets of 0.22 bore rifles on August
7, 2012.
The investigators detected that the licence was fake as the Noakhali superintendent of police (SP) did not issue this license. When contacted, shop-owner Syed Noman said, “The bullets were sold against a licence two years ago and I had submitted all the papers regarding bullet sales to the Special Branch (SB). They have also investigated the matter. But as a dealer, M/S Noman and Sons did not commit any irregularity.” According to the Special Branch of Police, nearly 1,000 arms and more than 1,00,000 rounds of bullets were sold between January and March by legal arms dealers and shops. The firearms and ammunition were sold to 290 licence-holding individuals and 75 institutions.
Dhaka Arms Dealers and Importers Association president Nasir Ahmed said, “Arms and ammunition are sold only after the dealers scrutinise the licences. They can sell no arms without licences and the dealers always send the numbers of the arms and ammunition sold by them to the SB and deputy commissioner’s (DC’s) offices each month.”
Former inspector general of police SM Shajahan, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, told The Independent, “The sale of huge amounts of bullets by dealers must be monitored by the authorities concerned. They should also collect information on how and for what purposes those bullets were being used.”
There is no current database on arms and bullets sold in the last 10 years. But ministry sources said it has been working on the preparation of a current database on arms and ammunition.
According to the police headquarters, there is currently a total of 2,95,247 holders of legal arms licences in the country. Of those, 165,329 arms are owned by former members of law enforcement agencies, the military, and some private security firms. Some 129,918 more arms are owned by political leaders and important individuals. But the reality is that the authorities had issued the arms licences to most of the individuals without conducting proper scrutiny and cross-checks, as can be seen from the fact that the mastermind behind the sensational seven Narayanganj murders, Nur Hossain, owned licences of 11 firearms.
State minister for home affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “Some specific measures would be taken for controlling both legal and illegal arms. As it is a sensitive issue, nothing can be disclosed to the media now.”
The SB reports also found that the police have failed to detect the licence holders of at least 52,788 legal arms since 2008, despite numerous efforts.
Before the ninth national polls, the caretaker government had asked licensed arms holders to deposit their arms with the appropriate police stations between 20 November and 3 December 2008. But the timeframe was extended till December 14 as most arms were not deposited by the owners. The report found that 1,23,592 arms were deposited at the police stations within the deadline, although the licensed arms at that time totalled 1,76,380. The police stations informed the ministry that a total of 52,788 arms were not deposited although the deadline expired.
Usually, the database of legal arms holders are updated every five years ahead of the national polls. But the authorities, considering the security issues of the political leaders before the 10th national polls on 5 January, told licensed arms not to deposit their arms. As a result, the home ministry or the law enforcement agencies do not know the number of legal arms that is now in the country and who the real users of those arms are.
But no concrete step has been taken for controlling the use of legal arms by the police and other concerned departments even though six years have passed since 52,788 arms holders went missing.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson and joint commissioner (Detective Branch) Monirul Islam told The Independent, “It is the duty of the police stations concerned to make inquiries about the licensed arms and their owners on a regular basis. Usually, the police make inquiries about licensed arms owners only when untoward incidents occur in their respective areas.”