Conclusion: A strategy is needed to recover looted weapons, control escaped prisoners, and neutralize those who adversely affect peace and security by conducting individual and joint 'operations'.
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The chiefs of all four security agencies have pointed to looted weapons and escaped prisoners and detainees as major security challenges. In a security analysis and election security review held at the Nepal Army headquarters Jangi Adda on Sunday, they pointed to the prisoners and detainees who escaped from prison on 24 Bhadra and looted weapons as major challenges. They concluded that this has made election security more challenging.
They have also pointed out that a strategy is needed to conduct a single and joint 'operation' between the security agencies to recover the looted weapons, control the escaped prisoners, and neutralize the parties that adversely affect peace and security. Chief of Army Staff Ashok Raj Sigdel called Inspector General of Police Chandrakuber Khapung, Inspector General of Armed Police Force Raju Aryal, and Chief of National Investigation Department Tekendra Karki, along with other high-ranking security officials, to the military base at 11 am on Sunday to discuss the latest security situation, election security strategy, and other issues.
During that, Inspector General of Police Khapung, Inspector General of Armed Police Force Aryal, and Chief of Investigation Department Karki informed about the activities being carried out by their respective mechanisms and spoke about the challenges that have emerged. The security chiefs of all three agencies pointed out that the incident of Bhadra 24 and the situation created by it are the current challenges, said an official who participated.
The meeting, which lasted until 2 pm, discussed how to make the upcoming election security effective, systematic and reliable by overcoming the challenges.
In recent days, the army, police and armed forces have started joint security patrols across the country, keeping in mind the peace and security situation. ‘The security situation is challenging, and in the backdrop of the morale of the security agencies having weakened after Bhadra 24, the joint security patrols have been started to gradually normalize it, further strengthen inter-security agency relations, eliminate the fear in society caused by escaped prisoners, looted weapons and the threat created by this, and control unwanted activities,’ said a senior army official. ‘There has been good feedback on this, and Sunday’s discussion focused on continuing it and the security agencies concerned facing the common challenge individually and jointly.’
Discussions were also held on the issue of establishing election security command posts by all security agencies and mobilizing them accordingly, and the official said that this will be further reviewed in the next meeting. The government, Election Commission and security agencies are making their own preparations for the elections on Falgun 21. The challenge is to conduct the elections in a fair, fearless and fraud-free manner. More than 1,200 police weapons were looted during the Gen-G movement on 24 Bhadra, and more than 500 have not yet been returned. Another challenge has been added to this issue as 100,000 rounds of ammunition are missing from police records. 14,043 prisoners have escaped from 28 different prisons and juvenile correctional homes, and more than 5,000 are still outside prison.
More than 400 police barracks and offices were destroyed by fire, and 401 are still operating from temporary management and rubble. 62 armed forces barracks/offices were also vandalized, but work is being carried out through repairs and temporary arrangements. The Police Headquarters has collected details of the personal property of police officers and soldiers worth more than 220 million rupees being destroyed in the burning of barracks and offices.
On the other hand, the army has also been criticized for failing to provide security after the parliament, court, presidential palace, prime minister's residence, Singha Durbar, CIAA, offices of various political parties and residences of leaders, including public and private and commercial buildings, were destroyed by fire. Against this backdrop, a senior police official said that discussions and reviews were held among the security chiefs to make the security situation tight and strong, taking all issues seriously, including the elections on 21 Falgun and the security fears that have emerged in the society before that.
