A pistol used by notorious Chattogram criminal Mobarak Hossain, also known as ‘Golakata Mobarak’, to fire indiscriminately at police during an operation has been identified as a firearm originally belonging to the police.
The weapon was reportedly looted from Kotwali Police Station in Chattogram on 5 August 2024, when widespread attacks, vandalism and looting targeted police facilities across the country. After his arrest, Mobarak told police during preliminary questioning that he had obtained the pistol through another criminal. Investigators, however, suspect that he himself may have been involved in looting weapons from the station on that day.
The incident has renewed concern over firearms that went missing during the violence of 5 August. Although a large proportion of the looted weapons and ammunition were subsequently recovered, some remain unaccounted for. Law-enforcement agencies believe that at least some of those weapons may have ended up in the hands of organised criminals.
The concern is not limited to Chattogram. During the attacks, criminals and their associates allegedly took advantage of the disorder surrounding police stations and outposts to seize firearms and ammunition. While many members of the public who had taken weapons later returned them or abandoned them, weapons retained by criminal groups have proved considerably harder to trace.
According to law-enforcement sources, the authorities initially appealed for the return of looted firearms and ammunition and announced rewards for information leading to their recovery. A substantial number were subsequently handed over. Others were recovered after being found abandoned at different locations.
The weapons that remain missing are now a particular focus of the authorities because of the potential risk of their use in criminal activities. Firearms originating from police armouries can also be difficult to distinguish from legally held weapons once they have been transferred into criminal networks, making their recovery and identification an important law-enforcement task.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has reportedly taken fresh measures to recover the remaining firearms and ammunition. Police and other relevant agencies have been instructed to intensify their efforts, while a special unit working in coordination with intelligence agencies is involved in the recovery operation.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has also announced a reward for information leading to the recovery of the looted firearms. Authorities are seeking to identify weapons still in circulation and determine how they moved from police facilities into the possession of criminals.
Scale of the 5 August looting
Police Headquarters data show the scale of the disruption on 5 August 2024. A total of 460 police establishments were attacked, set on fire or looted. Among them, 114 police stations were vandalised and 56 were set ablaze.
Police vehicles were also heavily affected, with 1,024 vehicles of various types reportedly damaged. More significantly, thousands of firearms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition were looted from police facilities.
A total of 5,073 firearms and 652,000 rounds of ammunition were reported to have been looted. The firearms included 14 weapons belonging to the police and Ansar forces that had been taken during the April 2024 bank attacks in Bandarban.
The figures underline why the recovery of the remaining weapons continues to be treated as a security priority. Every firearm that remains outside official control represents a potential source of risk if it is acquired by criminal groups.
The case involving Mobarak provides a direct example of that concern. A weapon reportedly taken from a police station during the unrest was later allegedly used against police officers during an operation. While Mobarak has claimed that another criminal supplied him with the pistol, investigators are examining whether he had a direct role in obtaining it from Kotwali Police Station.
Authorities are therefore facing a twofold task: recovering firearms that remain missing and establishing how those weapons reached criminal hands. The renewed recovery drive is expected to focus particularly on weapons believed to have remained in circulation since the mass looting of August 2024.
