FROM PAGE 14

The gangs formed two rival alliances: the Bhuiyan Sohel and Syedpuriya Babu groups are one side while the Molla Arshad and Imtiaz groups are on the other.

Each group has 20-25 armed cadres and several drug peddlers. In clashes, the gangs used sharp weapons, and threw bricks, and crude bombs at each other. But they have been using firearms since the fall of the government.

In early August, mobs looted arms and ammunition from different police stations and facilities.

As per Police Headquarters data, 5,829 firearms were looted. Of those, 3,933 were recovered while the rest are missing. The arms include rifles, SMGs, pistols, shotguns, and teargas launchers.

Locals say some of the police arms are now at the hands of the gangs.

On September 6, a Rab team recovered three abandoned shotguns, 98 bullets, and a police belt from the Beribadh area.

A police officer, who watched the videos from the Geneva Camp, said pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns are often kept in police stations, either as backup or as property of civilians. The shotguns seen in the footage are not of the type that police use. But it could still be at a police station.

He said it was likely that the looted weaponry was now being used by the gangs.

“These firearms could have been owned by civilians who might have surrendered these to the police. However, a pistol seen in the video could have been owned by either the police or civilians,” he said, requesting anonymity.

A source at Dhaka Medical College morgue said Sonu’s body had 14 bullet wounds.

A police officer said that the bullets were from a 12-gauge shotgun.

Ruhul Kabir Khan, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said police were looking into whether firearms were given to any groups before August 5 to suppress the student-led mass uprising.

Iftekhar Hasan, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station, suspected that the firearms used in Geneva Camp might have been looted from various police stations, including Mohammadpur.

He added that police were conducting operations to arrest the suspects and recover the firearms.

No arrests have been made yet.