With murder rate spiking and many looted guns still missing, govt must deliver results
As the country hurtles towards a general election in February, the law and order situation continues to cause concerns. Reports about recent incidents such as the twin killings outside a judge's court in Khulna or the viral footage of a politician gunned down in a shop in Dhaka's Pallabi area—however isolated they may seem—contract the optimism of Home Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury who insists that there is "no risk" of the security situation deteriorating before the polls. He claims the environment is "steadily improving" following the tumultuous ousting of the Awami League regime. This, however, remains at odds with the reported reality.
Data from the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) suggests that the country is still reeling from that violent hangover. Firearms-related offences surged by 30 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025. Police ledgers are equally dismal: in the past 15 months, 4,809 murder cases were filed nationwide, 3,236 of them in the first 10 months of this year, as this newspaper reported. That equates to more than 10 bodies a day. Further CGS data offers a slightly more nuanced, though hardly reassuring, view. The monthly average of murders fell to 322 in the first half of this year from 343 in the same period a year earlier. However, this is still a roughly 28 percent increase over the 2023 average.
The problem is threefold. First, the machinery of law enforcement remains brittle. The police force, having acted as the blunt instrument of the previous regime, collapsed in morale and efficacy following last year's uprising. They have yet to regain their footing. A police spokesperson admits that stopping targeted killings—often born of hyper-local grudges—is difficult. Second, during the chaos of the political changeover, many police stations were looted. More than 1,300 firearms remain missing, a floating arsenal now likely in the hands of the gangs and political muscle carving up turf in different localities. Rewards offered for their return have yielded little. Third, the political vacuum is being supplemented by old habits. With the election schedule looming, prospective candidates are not merely canvassing; they are battling for dominance, with reports indicating a sharp rise in intra-party clashes. Worse still, "top criminals," released from prison or emboldened by the security void, are now being recruited to intimidate rivals.
The interim government is tasked with shepherding a democratic transition, but the terrain is being mined by political vendettas, factional feuds, and a resurgent underworld. Security analysts warn that without a focused crackdown, specifically the recovery of illegal arms and the re-arrest of resurgent criminals, the days to the upcoming polls will hardly be peaceful. The government has done relatively well to stabilise the economy. Now, it must secure the streets to make sure the path to the ballot box becomes peaceful.
