Overlap among police units, agencies: Rivalry, infighting cause tension

Duties of different units of the police are overlapping other units and government agencies, causing professional rivalry, infighting and tensions between the units and agencies. 
Many senior officials said that they were confused about the erection of different specialised units with similar engagements and added that due to such overlapping, many units were reacting badly indicating the breach of the chain of command.
Different units are even giving different versions of a same incident due to lack of coordination among the units basically meant for public order, the officials said.
The tension between police headquarters and Rapid Action Battalion surfaced again recently while police officials said many units had similar experiences.
On September 27, the battalion complained to the home ministry about police excesses on battalion members, saying that the prevailing situation was so tense that it might go out of hand anytime. 
In some cases, police hit battalion members with sticks and rifles, the letter stated mentioning six such incidents, which the police headquarters was now investigating.
The home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, replying to a reporter’s query after a programme at Tejagaon on October 14, however, termed the tension ‘sibling rivalry.’
Inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque at a briefing on October 13 said that the battalion cannot bypass police headquarters.
A superintendent of police stationed in northern region said that the problem ensued when competition turned into rivalry and personal enmity.
Battalion director general Benazir Ahmed admitted on Friday that the law enforcing agencies needed more coordination.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has been claiming that Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead at Gulshan on September 28 by Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists while the battalion on Friday claimed the murder was committed by regrouped Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.
Dhaka University mass communication and journalism department chair Md Mofizur Rahman observed that such contradictory statements usually confused people and put credibility of law enforcers into question.
New Age spoke to 26 cops ranking from constable to additional inspector general of police and most of them identified overlap among the units and lack of coordination as the major causes of the tension.
A retired official involved in the battalion’s inception in 2004 said it was designed and meant to curb serious crimes especially extremism as the police were busy in policing and investigation.
The battalion, a specialised unit of police with 11,103 members from armed forces and other government agencies played role in curbing extremism and crime amid widespread criticism about human rights violation.
The police, meanwhile, set up Counter Terrorism and Trans-National Crime unit under Dhaka Metropolitan Police to curb and investigate extremism. Its jurisdiction is similar to that of the battalion.
The officials said that the counter terrorism unit would be more equipped and people would be outsourced from other agencies. 
Asked if the two units with similar engagements were viable, counter terrorism unit chief Monirul Islam said, ‘The government will decide which one is important.’
The officials said that as the government was approached by donors for equipping anti-extremism units, the police headquarters and even Criminal Investigation Department set up special groups to curb extremism with similar engagements of the counter terrorism unit.
Tension is there between US-trained Special Weapon and Tactics, Bomb Disposal Unit and counter terrorism unit over publicity, the officials said. 
The Criminal Investigation Department is a specialised unit to investigate murder, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, financial crime and cyber crimes. 
The counter terrorism unit is also trying to deal with cyber and financial crimes, CID officials said.
Crime scene management is one of most important functions of CID while Police Bureau of Investigation is also engaged in it.
Instead of strengthening the department, the government set up the bureau as in October 2012 with nearly 1,000 members and huge equipments to investigate cases in a very ‘professional manner’ to ‘expedite the process of establishment of rule of law in the society,’ the officials said. 
The bureau special superintendent Ahsan Habib Palash said they had very ‘sweet professional competition’ in 30 districts to solve several hundred cases.
Another official, however, alleged they were facing huge trouble with CID and district police when they tried to pick up any pending case or to rush somewhere to manage crime scene.
Another police superintendent in Dhaka range admitted that they often fell into dilemma to engage any of CID, bureau or district police in investigation into a case. 
The Special Branch of police is the prime intelligence agency which now competes with National Security Intelligence and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, a number of officials said.
No major tension among the three agencies was reported but a NSI team beat up personnel of the Detective Branch of police following ‘misunderstanding’ over capturing a suspect in late 2011, the officials said.
The government has formed River Police dedicated to curb crime on the waterways with 1,369 members under a deputy inspector general of police. 
The officials said the rules on River Police were yet to be finalised as the ministries concerned were examining if there was anything contrary to the activities of Coast Guard.
Coast Guard deals with the sea but it also looks after inland waterways to curb piracy and trafficking, among others.
The police have General Railways Police led by a deputy inspector general with over 2,370 personnel who look after the security in of railways establishments while the railways ministry has separate Railways Nirapatta Bahini with 3,000 personnel who also look after 2877.10 kilometres rail tracts and others installations.
‘Though our duties are divided, activities often are overlapped especially personnel in deployment on particular duties,’ said a Railways Nirapatta Bahini official.
The government has engaged about 10,120 personnel in Armed Police Battalion under a deputy inspector general. 
One of 13 units of the battalion was deployed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in 2010.
The battalion has a crisis response team of 40 people trained by the US counter terrorism agency, and several dozen of Indian-trained commandos alongside 300 other personnel with aviation security training.
The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh in February 2016 deployed air force personnel along with battalion and Ansar at the international airport, causing tension which led prime minister Sheikh Hasina to intervene to settle the crisis, officials said.
Rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra acting executive director Nur Khan Liton said, ‘We have noticed lack of coordination among the units [of police] surfaced as their duties overlap.’
He said, ‘When the agencies concerned have inter-unit tense, it ultimately affects justice seekers.’

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net