The Home Ministry has finalized the list of new officers-in-charge (OCs) for 527 police stations across the country ahead of the upcoming 13th parliamentary elections. The officers were selected through a lottery process held in the capital on Monday—an unprecedented procedure as part of the election preparations.
Police Headquarters AIG (Media) AHM Shahadat Hossain said that the lottery was held in the presence of the Home Affairs Advisor and the Inspector General of Police. The final list of OCs has been prepared based on the results.
Although there are a total of 639 police stations in the country, the lottery was conducted for 527 district-level police stations. 112 police stations in the metropolitan area were not included in this. The maximum number of OCs elected in the new postings was 111 in the Chittagong range and 98 in the Dhaka range. Among the other ranges, 71 OCs were elected in Rajshahi, 62 in Rangpur, 64 in Khulna, 36 in Mymensingh, 46 in Barisal and 39 in Sylhet range.
Home Ministry and police sources said that a list of honest and qualified officers was collected from various units to appoint impartial and experienced officers at the field level around the elections. Later, a lottery was organized after verifying the list.
Earlier, on November 24, the interim government finalized the appointment of Superintendents of Police (SPs) in 64 districts through the same procedure.