A SURGE in attacks on law enforcers, mostly by crime suspects during raids and drives, is worrying. Police data show 213 incidents of attack to have happened on law enforcers in January–April, with 42 each in January and February, 63 in March and 66 in April. The attacks have not only caused injuries to law enforcers. Some of them have died in such attacks. Police data show 601 incidents of attack on law enforcers in 2025. In the latest such incident on May 25, an armed group of 250–300 people vandalised and bulldozed an under-construction camp of the joint forces at Jungle Salimpur in Chattogram. The attackers fired gunshots, damaged a road stretch and a culvert to frustrate the operations of the joint forces. The law enforcers could detain 15 suspected attackers. Attackers killed a deputy assistant director of the Rapid Action Battalion in the area on January 19. A suspected mugger stabbed to death a battalion member in Sylhet on May 22. A Detective Branch member was injured with a sharp weapon during a drive against drugs at Wazirpur in Barishal the same day.
Seven police personnel were injured in an attack at Pallabi in Dhaka on May 20 when they went there to reclaim a piece of land. Muggers attacked law enforcers near the Town Hall Bazar at Mohammadpur in Dhaka on May 11. Muggers attacked an assistant subinspector and snatched his pistol in Narayanganj on March 9. But why do attacks continue, or even surge, on law enforcers? A ranking police officer seeks to put it down to the tenuous state that the police have been in since the 2024 mass uprising. The official says that steps are being taken to boost the morale of law enforcers, noting that the situation is gradually improving. A fellow of a non-governmental think tank also says that the police, who have been ineffective for the duration of the interim administration, having lost their morale after the 2024 uprising, have become weak in policing. The police losing their morale has been in discussion since the fall of the Awami League regime in August 2024. Yet, the same excuse is given for the weakness of the law enforcers. A former inspector general says that attacks on police during raids are nothing new, but the surge is. An official says that firearms looted in July–August 2024 also contribute to the decline as about a fourth of the 5,763 firearms looted are yet to be recovered.
The government should, therefore, definitively ensure accountability in attacks on the police and attend to police leadership because only blaming low morale will not help bring back morale.
