Home affairs adviser to the interim government retired Brigadier General M Sakhawat Hossain on Sunday asked police members to return to duty by Thursday otherwise they would be assumed unwilling to work in the force.
鈥榃e will assume that they have fled. I have many mechanisms for making replacements. I will not share those mechanisms right now,鈥� the home adviser said, while responding to a journalist at a briefing at Razarbagh Police Hospital after visiting the injured police members.
Speaking about the country鈥檚 political situation, he said that they did not create any politicians but created sycophants who chanted 鈥榚verything was all right鈥� despite people were dying.聽
Giving a strong message to all political parties about extortions and extreme activities, while talking to reporters later in the afternoon at the secretariat the home adviser said, 鈥榊ou can see the condition of a political party [Awami League]. The party members are on the run despite being such a large and traditional political party and its name being connected with the country鈥檚 independence.鈥�
鈥業f you think that you will come and start grabbing markets, ghats and do extortion. I requested to the army chief to break their legs.鈥�
At Rajarbagh Police Hospital, Sakhawat said that politics could not be conducted by sycophants.
鈥楶olitics will be for all political parties, including those that were in power. Their [AL] politics cannot be banned. You should have realisation and remove sycophants,鈥� he added.聽
Regarding the police force, he said that politics would be difficult from now on as the police could not be used as a political tool.
鈥業 will insist that the police will be under the police commission,鈥� he said, adding that orders would be given to the police commission and the commission will decide what to do,鈥� Sakhawat added.
Operations of 599 police stations, out of 639, resumed across Bangladesh as of 3:00pm on Sunday, according to the Police Headquarters.
Of the 110 police stations situated in metropolitan cities, 97 were functioning, while of 529 situated at the district level, 502 resumed operations, he said.
Inspector general of police Md Mainul Islam on Sunday said that at least 42 police personnel, including three inspectors and two members of the Rapid Action Battalion, were killed in violence so far.
The police chief revealed the information while responding to journalists at a briefing at Razarbagh Police Hospital after visiting the injured police members.
鈥楳any police members were injured. A total of 507 policemen took treatment at the hospital,鈥� he said, adding that 27 were now undergoing treatment at the hospital, including one in the Intensive Care Unit.
The attacks on police personnel were mostly carried out after the fall of Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 as the force members fired indiscriminately at protesters, leaving at least 376 people dead in between July 16 and August 5.
