Staff Correspondent:

Home Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has faced questions after two members of the Detective Branch were injured by bullets fired by “drug peddlers,” amid a debate over the government decision to withdraw lethal weapons from the police force.

Police are carrying “necessary” weapons on duty, the advisor said as he visited the injured at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday.

Jahangir was asked if police personnel carrying light weapons put them at risk while on duty.

“Not light weapons. Police have been using necessary weapons at work,” he said.

Some raised the issue that criminals, on the other hand, could use heavy weapons. “The criminals didn’t use any heavy weapons but only pistols,” the home advisor said.

He said a “new decision” was made at the ninth meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Law and Order on May 12. “Police should not have lethal weapons any longer, and they should surrender those they have now.”

“Police will not have deadly weapons anymore. However, the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) will have them.”

Police say that criminals opened fire when police ordered a car to halt on the suspicion that those on it were “drug smugglers” around 12:45am on Thursday at Dhaka’s Fakirapool.

Assistant Sub Inspector Atik Hossain was struck by a bullet on the left side of his stomach while Constable Sujon was struck on the left knee.

They were rescued around 2:30am and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Both of them are still receiving treatment there.

The advisor went to visit the injured and said, “We received information yesterday that a specific vehicle was coming from Chattogram, that had yaba inside.”

Police tried to stop the vehicle at the Fakirapool intersection but it kept moving. When police chased it, criminals inside the vehicle opened fire at police after it stopped 500-600 yards away from the intersection.

One of the suspects fled the scene, while the other three were arrested. Police seized the car and recovered nine thousand yaba pills from it, the home advisor said.

Stating that the injured policemen were “out of danger”, he said: “One of them is an ASI and the other is a constable. The constable was shot in the left leg, and the bullet was removed last night. We will now take him to the police hospital.”

“The ASI was shot on the left side of the stomach. By the grace of Allah, none of his organs were hit. We’ll take him to the police hospital once he is released after 48 hours of observation following his operation.”

Jahangir said efforts were underway to nab the other suspect. “Our police were brave and arrested three suspects. Drugs were recovered, and the car was seized as well. Police showed immense bravery by putting their lives at risk to control the drug menace.”

“The criminals are not getting away easily. See, we brought three of the four to justice.”