Staff Correspondent:

More than 700 inmates who broke out of jail during last year’s July Uprising remain at large, according to Bangladesh’s prisons chief.

About 2,200 inmates fled during the unrest, Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Md Motaher Hossain said on Tuesday. Most of them have since been caught, he added.

“Now, over 700 are still absconding, including 65 militants. Among them are life-term convicts as well as some who have been sentenced to death.”

Motaher noted that 29 of the weapons looted from prisons during the upheaval have yet to be recovered.

“Law-enforcing agencies are working to recover the missing arms and re-arrest the fugitives. To ensure prison security, there are also plans to purchase new weapons,” he said.

The prisons chief stressed that no murders had taken place inside jails over the past year.

“There may be allegations of prisoners being killed, but in the last one year there has been no case of murder inside prisons. Postmortems are carried out as required for every death,” he said.

Motaher also announced a plan to rename the prison system as Bangladesh Correction Services to highlight rehabilitation, with a new Correction Services Act 2025 already drafted for approval.