Govt mulls outlaw surrender

Govt mulls outlaw surrender Star Online ReportState Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku today said the government might consider allowing the outlaws to surrender if they decide to return to a normal life, reports our Pabna correspondent. The sate minister was talking to reporters after a meeting with top officials of law enforcing agencies of the country's southwest region in Pabna today. He also said there is no term called 'crossfire' in the activities of law enforcing agencies. But when criminals attack the law enforcement personnel, they (criminals) apparently prompt them (law enforcers) to fire back to save their lives. In the wake of rising criminal activities by different outlawed parties in the southwest part of the country, the state minister held the meeting to give the law enforcers necessary guidelines to improve the overall law and order situation immediately. High officials of Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) including Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police of Khulna Range, Rab Additional Director General Col Mizanur Rahman and Police Superintendents of ten districts of the region were present at the meeting. Earlier on August 20, Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad and Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Hassan Mahmood Khandaker visited Kushtia and directed the law enforcers to launch a joint drive. Since then the law enforcers have been conducting a special drive in the region in which at least 16 extremists have been killed in 'shootouts' between the law enforcers and their cohorts. "The combing operation will be launched to cut down the strength of the outlawed parties and force their armed members to give in," said a senior official of the home ministry. The home ministry is working as to whether the outlawed party activists, if surrendered, could be brought under general mercy of the government like that of 1999 when 2,700 members of different outlawed parties surrendered with 2,100 firearms. Different sources said the outlawed party members have so far killed around 250 people in the southwest region after the Awami League-led grand alliance government assumed office. The southwest region includes Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Jhenidah, Jessore, Narail, Magura, Satkhira, Bagerhat and Khulna.