The Bangladesh Army-led joint forces recovered 16 firearms from the capital’s Mohammadampur, Badda and Jatrabari areas on Friday and Saturday.

Of them, two firearms were recovered from Mohammadpur, 11 from Badda, and three others were recovered from the Jatrabari area.

An official of the Inter Services Public Relation Directorate said that the army arrested suspected extortionist Md Zahirul Islam, 44, with two USA-made pistols, six rounds of bullets and two magazines at Krishi Market of the Mohammadpur area on early Saturday.

On Friday, joint forces arrested Mehedi Hasan alias Dipu at the third floor of his house in the Badda area and seized 11 firearms and 394 rounds of bullets from his possession, according to the ISPR.

According to the police, Mehedi, a close aide to Subrata Bain, a top crime suspect, was taking preparations to create chaos during the upcoming Jatiya Sangsad elections scheduled for February 12.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Gulshan Division deputy commissioner Rownak Alam said that a case was filed against Mehedi with Badda police station in this connection and that he was now on a five-day remand in police custody.

Joint forces in a drive on Friday also arrested a youth, Pichhi Masum, with two foreign-made pistols and one locally-made revolver at Dhalpur of the Jatrabari area.

They also arrested Masum’s associate Naim, 33, and also conducted drives at eight places, and arrested two other associates, Nasir, 32, and Raju, 32.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday at the Roller Skating Complex in the capital’s Gulistan area to brief the media on preparations for the next general election and referendum, director of the Military Operations Directorate at the army headquarters, Brigadier General Dewan Mohammad Monzur Hossain, said that the

army had so far recovered 10,152 firearms, 2,91,000 ammunition and arrested 22,282 identified crime suspects.