Pvt security firms to be made accountable
Govt to issue order soon
Staff Correspondent
The government will soon issue an SRO (Statutory Regulatory Order) to ensure accountability and responsibility of private security agencies in the wake of growing incidents of heists by on-duty security guards at jewellery shops in the city.The assurance came when an eight-member delegation of Bangladesh Jewellers' Samity (BJS) and Bangladesh Jewellery Manufacturers and Exporters' Association (BJMEA) met State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar at his office yesterday to press their six-point demand. "As we demanded a stringent law to deal with jewellery shop robberies and heists, the minister assured us of issuing an SRO shortly to ensure that the private security agencies cannot dodge their responsibility in this regard," BJMEA President Anwar Hossain told The Daily Star, emerging from the meeting. He also described it as the preliminary step towards enacting the new law. The government has also decided in principle to form a special team by law enforcers of different agencies to monitor the investigation into heists and robberies at jewellery shops. Since the heist at two jewellery shops at Rajlaxmi Complex in Uttara on May 24, the jewellers have been demonstrating for the arrest of the culprits involved, recovery of the looted gold ornaments, adequate security to the jewellery businessmen and providing police personnel to guard their shops from 9:00pm to 8:00am every day and reinforcement on the weekend and government holidays. Saying that security guards provided by different security agencies were found involved in many incidents of robbery, BJS submitted a memorandum to the home minister on Wednesday asking to meet their six-point demand including monitoring of the private security agencies. In yesterday's meeting, the BJS and BJMEA leaders also asked the state minister not to treat heists at jewellery shops like 'common robbery'. "We've asked the minister to consider gold as a valuable metal and gold heist as special robbery case," said Anwar. They also asked the minister to make the bail provision strict in jewellery heist cases. BJS President MA Wadud Khan, Joint Secretary Dr Shahin and executive member Gulzar Ahmed were also among the delegation. According to BJS statistics, 21 major robberies and heists took place since December 2001. Besides, the robbers looted gold and cash worth Tk 11.12 crore since February 25 last year.
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