Staff Reporter:
Former adviser to the interim government M Sakhawat Hossain has spoken publicly about the issue of 7.62mm bullets, saying he had intended to launch an inquiry into the matter.
He made the remarks in an interview with a private television channel on Thursday.
Following the student-public movement of 2024, an interim government was formed, though the situation in the country had not yet fully stabilized. At that time, Sakhawat Hossain was given charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, he was later relieved of that ministry and assigned to the Ministry of Textiles and Jute for various reasons.
Recalling those days, he said he had visited Ansar members who had been shot. “I saw several videos — men wearing lungis and T-shirts, with helmets on, holding police rifles. That means the police had 7.62 Chinese Type-39 rifles. The bullet is 39. This is a very lethal weapon, generally used as a military firearm. We call it a ‘permitted bomb,’” he said.
He further said that such rifles had been provided to the police, though he did not know when. “I wanted to conduct an inquiry into when these rifles were given to the police, for what reason, and why. These rifles are not supposed to be standard police weapons,” he added.
When asked whether he had been able to carry out the inquiry, he replied, “No, I did not remain in that position long enough. So how could I conduct the inquiry? I had raised the question of how these rifles or this ammunition went from police hands to ordinary people, but no one asked me further about the background.”
Sakhawat Hossain also claimed he had seen images of individuals he found suspicious. “Who are they? Their physical features are not like ours; I used the word ‘outsiders.’ We do have snipers in our country — in the police and the army — but so many highly trained snipers appearing so frequently raised questions,” he said.
He added that some individuals were even seen being transported by helicopter, and that their appearance and build did not seem local to him.
