The transfer of 527 officers-in-charge through a lottery has raised questions, as the process effectively resulted in swapping entire batches of OCs between districts rather than random placement.
The lottery was conducted on Monday afternoon at the home ministry in the presence of Home Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on Home Affairs Khoda Baksh Chowdhury, Inspector General of Police Baharul Alam, Senior Secretary Nasimul Gani, and other officials. The full list of transferred officers was published on Tuesday.
Police Headquarters AIG (Media) AHM Shahadat Hossain told TIMES of Bangladesh, “The government decided to transfer officers through a lottery to ensure stability ahead of the election. A ‘fit list’ of honest and neutral officers was prepared, and OCs received new postings based on the lottery results.”
However, leaders of the two factions of the Bangladesh Police Association expressed dissatisfaction.
Mozammel Haque, president of one faction and a Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Branch inspector, said: “The so-called lottery transferred OCs from one district to another only. Those who have long been deprived of deserved postings got no benefit.”
Kamrul Hasan Talukder, president of the other faction and an SB inspector, added that the reshuffle was largely range-centric: “In larger ranges, some OCs were shifted to another district. No representative from the association was present during the lottery.”
Bangladesh has 639 police stations: 527 in district areas and 110 within the eight metropolitan cities.
District transfer only
Multiple sources confirmed that the reshuffle was not truly conducted through a random lottery. Instead, OCs were moved in groups—entire ranges were shifted to another district, a pattern that would be nearly impossible if the process were genuinely random.
For example: All OCs in Dhaka were transferred to Munshiganj, and vice versa.
The same pattern occurred between Shariatpur–Chandpur, Narayanganj–Gazipur, Faridpur–Khulna, Tangail–Kishorganj, and Chattogram–Cox’s Bazar. A small number of officers were also posted to Cumilla.
Officers are expected to join their new stations within one or two days.
Aggrieved OCs
Several inspectors from SB, PBI, and the Water Police said OCs serving in metropolitan areas were excluded from the lottery, while those from all ranges were included.
One inspector noted that some OCs had been transferred just a month ago and now must relocate again, leaving many frustrated.
Another officer questioned the credibility of the “fit list,” saying several deserving officers were left out.
Earlier, on November 24, district-level Superintendents of Police were also transferred through a lottery in the presence of Acting IGP and DMP Commissioner Md Sajjat Ali, along with senior officials from the Chief Adviser’s Office and the Home Ministry.
