The New Nation - Internet Edition

IT is guessed that there are about 400,000 illegal small firearms in circulation in Bangladesh. In addition, there are about 25,000 legally held firearms in illegal use in the country. The illegal arms in many cases are coming to Bangladesh as a consequence of slack law enforcement at the border areas and the difficulties in maintaining vigilance over the country's long land and maritime borders. But the illegal arms are not only coming from outside the country. Increasingly, locally made fire arms are being found by law enforcing agencies. Clandestine arms-making workshops were detected from time to time at different places of the country with their stores of pistols, revolvers and pipe guns, along with bullets or cartridges.

The unearthing of these workshops is indicative of the existence of a large number of these underworld makers of arms. Some of the locally produced arms caches showed that the makers had attained remarkable mastery in producing small arms-almost like genuine ones-and also in their firepower and effectiveness. The arms are also sold at relatively cheap prices. If firearms can be produced with such ease and sold cheap in the underground markets, then the country will become unlivable soon. Already, arms including automatic weapons like AK-47 rifles and sten guns are entering Bangladesh through the porous borders due to the operations of the international arms mafia. In addition, if locally produced arms become so easily available, then criminality is going to soar to a new high from a situation of getting arms so easily.

The toughest of actions and dragnets need to be taken by the law enforcement agencies to find out and put behind bars the illegal arms makers and to seal the points of entry of such arms at the borders. The present caretaker government should go all-out to recover unauthorised arms also for the peaceful holding of the next elections. But the search for illegal arms should not once again mean a pointless directive to their legitimate holders with licences to deposit the same to police stations. This was done several times before and the response was good from the owners. Thus, there can be no doubt about their compliance with official orders. But they certainly suffer from not having their weapons with them or the wear and tear of them from lack of care while they remain deposited in the police stations. Therefore, it makes sense to mainly target those people with the illegal arms because the purpose of possession and use of those are commission of crimes. The drive against illegal arms needs to be focussed against them instead of tormenting law-abiding citizens.