Security experts warned that merely before one month of the upcoming parliamentary polls any major reshuffle in the security forces may cause deterioration of the law and order situation across the country at a time of current volatile political situation.
Election Commission has announced schedule for the national election and as per the schedule, the election will be held on January 7 next year. There are only around 30 days remaining in the hands of the EC.
Officer-in-charge ( OCs) are the most important field level post in maintaining the law and order situation of the country round the year.
Many security analysts on condition of anonymity told that the opposition political parties led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and it’s key ally ultra radical Bangladesh Jamaat e Islami will try to carry out destructive activities to halt the election process.
In this complex context, if there are any massive reshuffle especially in law enforcing agencies finally happens, the new officers may fail to control the law and order situation in their new working stations.
A retired OC on condition of anonymity said, the post of the OC is the most crucial position in the police force.
Any newly posted OC takes at least one month to be familiar with all the stakeholders under his jurisdiction.
He needs to identify the major trends of the specific police stations regarding the criminal offense. Besides he also needs to personally meet the important political figures and local elites during his first one month of the tenure.
A current OC on condition of anonymity said, “ If our OCs are finally transferred from one district to another district at this time, it will be very hard for us to maintain law and order situation in the new stations.”
On December 1, EC had asked the government to transfer the OCs of all police stations.
According to a letter sent to the senior secretary of public security division, all the OCs who have completed more than six months of service at their current workplace should be transferred in the first phase.
It has also noted that proposals for the transfer of OCs in the first phase should be submitted to the EC by 5 December.
After the EC’s decision, Dhaka Metropolitan Police had planed to transfer 33 OCs by Tuesday.
DMP Additional Commissioner of Police (Admin) AKM Hafiz Akhtar ealier confired it.
He however claimed that the transfer of OCs will have no impact on law and order in the capital.
DMP additional commissioner for crime and operation Khandaker Mahid Uddin also said that they would transfer the 33 OCs soon.
But the EC on Monday extended the deadline for sending proposal on transferring OCs across Bangladesh for three more days.
The instruction, signed by deputy secretary Mizanur Rahman, was sent to the public security division of the ministry on Monday.
Meanwhile, police authorities have primarily enlisted 326 OCs in the country for transferring in the first phase as they have been working in their current postings for more than six months.
The Police headquarters deputy inspector general for operations Anwar Hossain said that they were still working on it and primarily found that 326 OCs had been served over six months at their stations.
Of the OCs who would be transferred in first phase, 33 are in DMP, 60 in Dhaka range of police, 20 in Sylhet range, 28 in Rangpur range, 21 in Barishal range, 38 in Khulna range, 23 in Mymensingh range, four in Khulna Metropolitan Police, five in Chattogram Metropolitan Police and three in Rangpur Metropolitan Police, said the police officer.
A senior PHQ officer said that they had now been working on the places of the transferred OCs’ postings.
DIG Anwar said that they had three more days to complete their proposals.
He said that the police authorities were yet to receive any instructions to transfer deputy commissioner of police, additional deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner level officers.