BANGLADESH’S gravest threat on the road back to democracy is not procedural delay or partisan mistrust.

It is something more elemental: the erosion of the state’s monopoly on violence. As the country approaches a long-awaited parliamentary election, the failure to recover looted firearms—and the violence already orbiting that failure—casts a long shadow over law, order, and electoral legitimacy.

During the mass uprising and the period of state instability that followed, police stations, security facilities, and prisons were overrun. Weapons meant to uphold public safety slipped into private hands. Authorities say many have since been recovered. Yet the remaining figures are chilling: more than 1,300 firearms and over 200,000 rounds of ammunition are still missing. These are not abstractions. They include rifles,........

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