The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE president of the female wing of the Kushtia District Awami League was arrested along with some others by the police the other day with firearms including one AK-47 rifle. There have been noted some other arrests of females on charges of possession of unauthorised arms. The seizure of unauthorised arms is nothing very surprising. For the last two decades, the numbers of unauthorised arms being either produced in local clandestine workshops or smuggled from across the borders, have been steadily increasing.

The weakening of the BDR since the mutiny at Peelkhana left the borders less guarded than before. This helps create room for large-scale infiltration of illegal arms into the country. The withdrawal of army garrisons from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to observe the treaty with the hill people, reportedly also has created similar opportunities for arms trafficking in that region. Besides, indigenous arms making factories are believed to have remained undetected. Thus, the supply of unauthorised weapons has become greater and easier than at other times in the past.

It should be obvious how such wider availability of firearms is leading to deterioration of law and order conditions. Criminals are getting strengthened and emboldened from such easy access to weapons. The security or the life and property of people is increasingly coming under a greater threat. The law enforcement bodies have been doing a good job in seizing unauthorised firearms. But they should be motivated and enabled to score much higher success in this area. It is alleged that some politicos in the ruling party are taking to arms trafficking as a lucrative business thinking that they would enjoy a sort of immunity because of their political credentials. This thinking must be destroyed completely by law enforcement actions against them.