Though officially it was said they are out there on winter exercise, confusion has arisen in public mind about the deployment of members of the armed forces at different places across the country over the last two days.
According to the Election Commission announcement, the army will be deployed for a fortnight beginning on December 26 as a strike force to ensure free, fair and peaceful 10th parliamentary elections in the country slated for January 5 next.
But the army men were already seen deployed in various districts, including Satkhira, Khulna, Jessore, Narsinghdi, Tangail, Gazipur, Comilla and Naryanganj.
According to media reports, the troops were found ‘patrolling’ the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong on Thursday.
Besides, the troops were also seen patrolling the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet highways and controlling traffic movement near Kanchpur Bridge and Jatrabari area on Saturday.
Makeshift army camps have been set up inside Satkhira and Jessore Upazila guesthouses apart from other districts across the country.
Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a press release on Thursday saying that the army had been on winter exercise in different regions, including Jessore and Satkhira.
When contacted, a senior officer of an influential intelligence agency said that army troops were seen involved in different activities like patrolling, traffic controlling and peace as part of its ongoing winter exercise.
“As the government has decided to deploy members of the armed forces from December 26 in an effort to ensure free, fair and peaceful parliamentary elections in the country, there is no scope to deploy the troops prior to that time,” said the official requesting anonymity.
Source: UNBConnect
