Faruk Ahmed named new SRB director general as seven police officers are reshuffled
Additional IGP Faruk Ahmed has been appointed the new director general (DG) of the Special Response Battalion (SRB).
The appointment was announced in a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday (3 November). The same notification reshuffled the postings of seven police officers of additional IGP and DIG rank — five of them additional IGPs and two DIGs.
According to the notification, Faruk Ahmed succeeds the outgoing SRB director general, Ahsan Habib Palash.
The most notable chapter of Faruk Ahmed's recent career was his tenure as chief of the Highway Police. After taking that charge in the first week of last July, he launched coordinated drives to restore discipline on the highways, keep traffic moving smoothly and curb extortion and robbery targeting vehicles.
It was after that record — restoring order on the highways and playing an effective role against extortion and robbery — that he has now been brought in to lead the SRB. His priorities were to reduce opportunities for crime on the highways, ensure the safety of passengers and transport workers through people-friendly policing, and make the police's field-level work more effective.
Under his plan, the use of technology in highway security was expanded. As part of the government's 'zero tolerance' policy against crime and drug smuggling, the Dhaka–Chattogram highway was brought under CCTV surveillance, and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI)-based cameras were installed at 16 important points on the highway.
A similar technology-based surveillance system was also initiated for the Dhaka–Mawa highway, creating scope to detect crime and drug smuggling and to strengthen monitoring of suspicious activity.
At the same time, police activity at field level was stepped up to suppress extortion from vehicles, robbery and other crimes on the highways, with emphasis on accountability in duty and stronger surveillance in crime-prone areas during his tenure.
