Bangladesh Police will begin a seven-day crackdown on militants across the country from Friday morning, says a statement issued by its media relations unit.
The decision to start action against Islamist radicals was taken at a meeting chaired by IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque at the Police Headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday, days after the murder of SP Babul Aktar’s wife Mahmuda Aktar Mitu in Chittagong.
The statement said a nationwide operation against the militants and terrorists will start from the early hours of Friday and continue for seven days.
The way Mahmuda was killed by motorcycle-borne assailants wielding sharp weapons and guns was strikingly similar to a number of murders across the country in the past two years, for which police blame Islamist radicals.
Babul was promoted to SP in April and transferred to the Police Headquarters. While he reported for duty in Dhaka last week, Mahmuda had stayed back with their two children in Chittagong.
Mahmuda was murdered near her home at OR Nizam Road while she was on her way to drop her son for the school bus at the city’s GCE Intersection.
Babul had received accolades for playing a major role in many counter-terrorism operations in his two years as an additional DC with the Detective Branch in the port city.
Police suspect militants have hit back by killing his wife on Jun 5 morning. But they are yet to either identify or arrest the killers even though five days have passed.
IGP Hoque asked his senior colleagues to bolster the campaign against militancy and terrorism at Thursday’s three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting in the police headquarters
File Photo
He also suggested using the community policing to gather information on militants.
“We need to bring those involved with this incident (Mahmuda’s killing) to justice very soon,” he said, urging all police personnel to stay strong and work together and professionally.
After Mahmuda’s murder, three persons were killed in ‘shootouts’ with police in Dhaka and Rajshahi. Police claimed all of them were operatives of banned militant outfit JMB.
Prior to the meeting, IGP Hoque had gone to SP Babul’s home at Banasree to meet him.
Additional IGs Fatema Begum, Sheikh Hemayet Hossain of CID and Abul Kashem of Railway Range, commissioners of all metropolitans, and SPs of different districts attended the meeting.
Source: Bd news24