Bangladesh Police personnel are going to get automatic small arms, besides conventional weapons, to face well-armed terrorists and maintain law and order sternly. For providing the automatic arms, the home ministry is preparing a guideline for the police on arms privilege. It would be finalised soon, sources in the ministry and the police department said. A closed-door meeting was held at the home ministry yesterday (Thursday) to finalise the proposed "police arms privilege policy". The senior secretary of the ministry was in the chair. But the meeting failed to finalise it, a top official of the home ministry told The Independent on condition of anonymity. “We want to provide automatic arms to policemen for combating crimes. At present, the police have weapons, including 9mm pistols, which are not that effective during operation against terrorists. Terrorists use sophisticated weapons, mostly smuggled, and this puts the police in a tight spot," he said.
"The small arms of the policemen are usually heavy, which makes them difficult to carry and use,” he added. He said modern police force in different countries use sophisticated arms (automatic arms), which are lightweight and easy to carry. “We will provide such automatic [small] arms to our policemen,” he adeed. Sources said in view of the rise in population in the metropolitan areas, the police need to use automatic weapons to maintain law and order and combat terrorists carrying better weapons.   
The arms used be Bangladesh Police are 9mm pistols, .303 Lee Enfield rifle, .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, Shotgun (12 Bore), 7.62 mm Chinese rifle, 7.62×51mm Heckler & Koch G3, AK-47, Tear Shell (gas gun), 7.62 sub-machine gun, gas grenade and pepper spray.
Assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), sub-inspectors (SIs), sergeants and assistant commissioners (ACs) use small arms, while constables have heavy weapons. A total of 2,11,564 policemen maintain law and order throughout the country.