The recovery of 20 rounds of 7.62 mm calibre bullets from a place close to the border with Tongi on the outskirts of Dhaka has shown the spotlight back on the mystery of identical calibre ammunition that was used between August 4 and 8, 2024 – the second phase of violence during the Bangladesh students’ movement that unseated Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister.
Speaking to Northeast News over phone, West Uttara police station Officer-in-Charge Habibur Rahman confirmed that the 7.62 bullets were recovered from a spot in Abdullahpur which “borders Tongi”.
Rahman said that the recovery was made a few minutes past 6 pm on March 12. The bullets were packed in their original brown packages.
“The markings on the cartridges indicate that these are for rifles” that use 7.62 mm caliber bullets,” Rahman said, adding that “investigations are underway to get to the source and who may have left behind the bullets in Abdullahpur”.
West Uttara police have not sent the bullets for ballistics tests since these are live ammunition.
“The packages containing the bullets were found near a small bridge on the Mymensing highway in Abdullahpur. The problem that we are faced with is that Abdullahpur and long stretches of the highway are not CCTV-covered,” Rahman said.
Rahman refused to disclose details of the investigation so far, but other Dhaka Metropolitan Police sources said the recovery of the bullets “should lead the investigators to look for assault rifles that could fire such ammunition”.
While Rahman said he was aware of reports that 7.62 mm bullets were used during the violence when the students’ agitation neared the end, other sources said that Abdullahpur is quite a busy place, reiterating the police’s position that the area may not be covered by CCTV.
West and East Uttara were among the worst affected places in Dhaka in early August 2024.
During the course of the violence unknown miscreants fired from high calibre weapons as also pistols.
West Uttara police station was burnt and destroyed by a rampaging mob and several police firearms were looted from the armoury.
Weeks after Sheikh Hasina fled and an interim authority led by Mohammad Yunus assumed power in Dhaka, Brigadier (retd) Shakhwat Hossain, the then Home Ministry advisor, declared publicly that 7.62 mm bullets were used.
He had said that his inquiries with law enforcement officers indicated that Dhaka Metropolitan Police did not use 7.62 mm calibre bullets.
Brigadier (retd) Shakhwat Hossain had admitted that he was mystified that such ammunition was used. He was soon moved out as Home Ministry advisor to take charge of the Textile ministry.
Long after the students’ coordinators ensconced themselves in the interim authority, speculation was rife that sniper rifles and other heavy bore weapons were brought into the country before the students’ agitation gathered pace.
The Yunus-led interim authority had showed little or no inclination to investigate and follow-up on Brig (retd) Hossain’s startling observations.
A few top retired police officers Northeast News spoke with said the recovery of the 20 bullets from a busy road intersection “indicates that they were placed for them to be discovered”.
