Passing-out parade of trainee SIs held

The passing-out parade of the trainee cadet sub-inspectors (SIs) was held at the Bangladesh Police Academy Sardah in Charghat, Rajshahi.

The parade, held at 10 am on Wednesday (January 15), saw the passing out of 480 members of the 40th cadet sub-inspector batch.

Earlier, their closing parade was postponed twice due to unavoidable reasons. 312 members of the same batch were first given show cause notices and later dismissed from service on various charges.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Baharul Alam was present as the chief guest at the closing parade and received the greetings. He also inspected the parade and distributed medals among those who excelled in various subjects. Assistant Superintendent of Police Md. Rezaul Karim served as the parade commander.

In his speech as the chief guest, the Inspector General of Police said to the Apprentice Cadets, as the leaders of a changing society, you will make an important contribution to the progress of Bangladesh in public service. The position of Sub-Inspector of Police is a very important position because you investigate 90 percent of criminal crimes. The main responsibility of the police is to suppress crime, provide security to people's property and maintain peace and order. The Police Reform Commission is working to develop the police into a party-neutral organization by freeing it from political influence. We are determined to restore the morale of the police and maintain law and order.

According to Police Academy sources, the one-year basic training of 823 cadet SIs began at the academy on November 5, 2023. 22 were discharged on various charges soon after the training started. The training of 801 people was supposed to end on November 4 last year. When the time for the two-phase training completion parade was fixed, it was postponed due to unavoidable reasons. Of these, 252 were discharged on October 21, 58 on November 4, 3 on November 18 and 8 on January 1 on charges of making noise without eating breakfast, being inattentive in class and causing chaos.

Meanwhile, the 321 trainee sub-inspectors (SIs) who were discharged held a sit-in program in front of the Secretariat on January 5 and 6 demanding their reinstatement. After that, they sat on a hunger strike to death in front of the Secretariat from Monday afternoon on the same demand. They were removed from in front of the Secretariat at around 1:45 am on Tuesday. The hunger strike trainee SIs have alleged that they were dispersed by spraying water.