Incidents of abduction, political killing, acid attack on women and toll collection are also on the rise, according to media reports.

Moreover, the government itself admitted that police failure to curb crimes had prompted it to launch the army-led "Operation Clean Heart" across the country and BDR-led "Operation Spider Web" in the south-west and form Rapid Action Battalion.

"Performance of the police administration is good and we are satisfied with them," Abdul Mannan, the chairman of the committee and a BNP lawmaker, told The Daily Star yesterday after yesterday's meeting.

"There is no failure on the part of the police administration; they are doing well every day," he told newsmen emerging from the meeting held at the cabinet room of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

He also said they discussed the police administration. Police's human resource is less than what they need, so manpower and facilities of the police administration should be raised.

Asked about police's performance in improving law and order, Mannan said, "Overall situation is improving. Though some incidents are happening, these are isolated. In many developed countries, some stray incidents do happen. So the committee was satisfied with their performance.''

Police are yet to rescue abducted Chittagong businessman Jamal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury though the inspector general of police had assured the standing committee in its August 23 meeting that Jamal would be rescued within 48 hours.

However, the committee at yesterday's meeting did not discuss the issue, Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury told the press. Altaf had said on August 24 that police knew about the whereabouts of Jamal.

But committee chairman Abdul Mannan said yesterday, "We hoped [about the rescue of Jamal] at our previous meeting. We are still hopeful. But in this case there is no failure of police, they are trying their best.''

At yesterday's meeting, a sub-committee was also formed to identify the problems facing police. The committee will review works of the sub-committee at its next meeting on October 18 and recommend ways to improve police performance.

Most members of the committee were reluctant to talk to press yesterday. They just said that the chairman of the committee would tell everything about the meeting.

Asked about the meeting, the home minister refused to make any comment and left it for the chairman. Asked about Jamal, the home minister said, "No discussion was held on this matter.''

Lutfozzaman Babar, state minister for home affairs, also refused to take any question, saying, "The chairman will tell you everything in this regard."

Mizanur Rahman Minu, a BNP lawmaker and committee member, said, "Of course, we are satisfied with the performance of the police administration."

Home Secretary Omar Faruque told reporters that the overall activities of police were discussed at the meeting.

Abdul Mannan presided over the meeting attended also by Majibur Rahman Sarwar, Ataur Rahman Khan, Sultan Mahmud Babu, Mushfiqur Rahman and officials concerned.