Bangladesh Cannot Afford to Disarm Its Police

Reading Time: 3 minutes Bangladesh stands at a dangerous crossroads. The call to disarm or downgrade the police removing lethal weapons from their hands is not reform. It is surrender. At a moment when armed criminals roam free, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition are unaccounted for, and law enforcement morale is collapsing, this policy risks dismantling the last barrier between an unstable nation and full-blown anarchy. The Numbers Tell the Story of a State Unprepared Since the uprising of August 5, 2024, the scale of weapon loss is unprecedented in the country’s history. 5,753 firearms and 651,826 rounds of ammunition were looted from police stations and armouries nationwide. As of now, 1,369 firearms and 251,826 rounds remain missing. These aren’t relics of past wars—they include assault rifles, sniper rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, anti-drone systems, and advanced communication gear. Some have likely already crossed into the black