A prominent journalist did not find his class five studying son after returning to his workplace on October 29. He rushed to go to the nearest thana and handed the two numbers from his call list who wanted a ransom of Tk 2 lakhs for his child in the evening. He got a call from his home that his son had returned after the Officer in Charge (OC) called two numbers.
He wrote a First Information Report (FIR) to the thana on October 31. But the thana authority did not take proper initiatives.
After some hot talk between the thana authority and the victim's family, they took FIR. They forwarded the complaint with weak act's and ignored the Women & Children Repression Act 2000, abduction law 362.
The police have not been able to stand straight from the pit they fell into after the fall of the Hasina government. The law enforcement force is trying to come back in a new form after overcoming various crises, limitations and disasters. On the one hand, normalizing the law and order situation, speeding up the movement of the forces, on the other hand, gaining public trust. Institutional reform is going on with keeping these two challenges in front.
In this background, the stakeholders feel that it is important for the police to work transparently and without political influence. Meanwhile, the police are going through a change in the new situation. Every day after August 5, new faces are coming to different positions of the police. In the last three months, the transfer and promotion of the storm speed! At this time, 45 thousand 42 members have been reshuffled against 2 lakh 2 thousand uniformed policemen across the country. Accordingly, about 25 percent of police chairs have changed. It is unprecedented for so many policemen to change jobs in a short period of time.
New faces have come to the posts of 64 districts police, all range DIGs, metropolitan commissioners and OCs of all police stations. The single largest unit in the police is the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). At least 32 thousand members work here. So far 18 thousand members have been transferred here. Training and motivation are being given to those who are joining important units like DMP from different places. The police administration has taken various initiatives to give a fair idea about the working style in a new environment in a place like the capital.
Policymakers say the transfer is to speed up work. In the last decade and a half, the police have been involved in various controversial activities. The mass uprising also saw the expression of people's anger against the police. The police are trying to get out of this situation.
But like some, new hires take some time to learn about the criminal network in their area. Criminals can take advantage of this. After a few days, the effect of the changes will be visible because, the challenge of dealing with new incidents and unpleasant situations is constantly coming in front of the police.
Analyzing the information received from a responsible source in the police headquarters, 18 additional IGP chairs have been transferred since August 5. The list of reshuffle includes DIG 124, Additional DIG 161, Superintendent of Police 244, Additional Superintendent of Police 400, Assistant Superintendent of Police 227. Apart from this, non-cadre posts reshuffled Inspector (Unarmed) 2 thousand 112, Inspector (Armed) 43, Inspector (Town and Vehicles) 294, Sub-Inspector (SI) 4 thousand 116, Sergeant 188, TSI 27, SI (Unarmed) 78, ASI 4 thousand 668, ATSI 57, ASI (Armed) 245 and Naik 615. And 31 thousand 424 constables were reshuffled in last three months.
According to the sources of the police headquarters, currently there are 2 lakh 13 thousand members working in the police. Among them, civil members are about 11,000. And the number of uniformed policemen is 2 lakh 2 thousand. Among them, the number of cadre posts is 3500; the rest are non-cadre. There are about 1 lakh 75 thousand constables among the policemen. There are 22 additional posts of IGP among the cadre members of the police force, 87 posts of DIG, Superintendent of Police 586 people.
According to the sources of Home Ministry, Police Headquarters and DMP, there was a change in the post of Inspector General of Police Moinul Islam was appointed on August 6 after the fall of the government. After that, various positions of the police started changing one by one. Many were fired from their jobs for not present in the work places. Some are attached to different units. Many people come to new responsibilities after being promoted. Those who were in unimportant positions since the last 15 and a half years, kept coming to the forefront. Many of the 'deprived' officials became influential.
DMP is the largest and most important unit of the police. This unit has about 32 thousand members. For the past 15 and a half years, the same face has been rotating in various important positions including the OC of 50 police stations of DMP. Many honest, efficient and competent officials are deprived of it. Breaking that ring of DMP was quite difficult. There was an officer in Gulshan Division, who served in the same unit for more than a decade. He has served consecutively in the OC, Assistant Superintendent of Police and Additional Superintendent of Police departments.
Two police officers, on condition of anonymity, said that apart from efficient, impartial, qualified officers, many officers have served in DMP for years through nepotism and financial transactions. Some have worked with transparency in some departments. Many of them are in trouble due to the speedy reshuffle. In addition to OC in 50 police stations of DMP, all crime departments have been reshuffled.
According to the OC recruitment policy, the maximum age limit for appointment to this post is 54 years. However, police inspectors above 54 years of age are being promoted to the post of OC in many police stations. Three in some police stations had to change OC multiple times within a month.
DMP Additional Commissioner (Administration) Farooq Ahmed said, there was no alternative to transfer. Not everyone is wrong. The local people in the police station and outpost could not accept the old policeman. The police have to work together with the community. So it had to be changed.
Many senior members are becoming OCs - he said, in DMP we are trying to hire younger policemen. But experience and qualification are often seen in case of OC. All have training; No one is less qualified. Newcomers in DMP are given a detailed idea about the type of work in Dhaka by being brought under various types of training, motivational training and orientation program.
When asked if the extensive reshuffling of specialized unit members would have a negative impact on work, he said, the specialized unit members are not being transferred simultaneously. If someone is removed from cyber, someone who has worked with another unit's cyber is being brought in.
When asked what kind of effect the reshuffle of so many policemen has had within the force, Farooq Ahmed said, "No one should stay in one unit for long." This leads to inertia at work; Loses enthusiasm to do new things.
Police headquarters spokesperson AIG Enamul Haque Sagor said this reshuffle is to speed up the police. They are working with professionalism. Transfers and postings are being done on the basis of merit.
In this regard, former Inspector General of Police Muhammad Nurul Huda said, the matter of transfer is an administrative decision. As the country has changed, the police have also undergone major reshuffles. What will be the result – it will take more time to understand. Those who have no complaints, good performance and documentary record performance, should be posted in good places.
Those concerned say that it is important to have a policy for promotion, posting and training of policemen. It should be followed properly. Then there will be no chance for anyone to be aggrieved about the promotion or posting.
Talking to seven officers of various units of the police, it is known that after the fall of the Awami League government, there was a demand to organize the force from within the police. The police members protested on 11-point demands, including depoliticizing the police. In the meantime, the government has formed a commission to reform the police force. They are also working. Again several committees were formed from within the police. According to some police officials, there is a need to identify those who have been involved in controversial activities in the past, as well as to ensure that no one who is honest and competent is included in the mass transfer or punishment list. The force will be quickly turned around by restoring morale when professional officers are given the responsibility of important posts.
Three police constables and a sergeant said their names are on the transfer list. The wife of one of them is pregnant. One's son studied in Dhaka. They are quite confused due to sudden transfer. In this regard, the police administration says that if someone has any kind of humanitarian issue, it is being taken into consideration. DMP Additional Commissioner Farooq said that the transfer of 1,100 members of DMP was canceled due to various humanitarian reasons.
Recently in Khulna it has been seen that a novel procedure has been followed in the transfer of police. Recruitment of policemen is done through open lottery. The policemen claim that this has ended the long-standing posting trade.
Meanwhile, the police headquarters said in a notification on August 31 that a gang is demanding money by threatening the transfer of policemen to different units. Everyone is requested to be careful from such scams.
Recently, Home Affairs Adviser Lieutenant General (retd.) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said regarding the law and order situation that the law and order situation in the country has improved a little but it is not satisfactory. As you know, we are changing almost all the police in Dhaka. It will take time to even recognize them. It will take time to establish their intelligence network. But the situation is slowly improving. There will be further improvements ahead.
ZH
