Dhaka goes under thick security blanket

News - Dhaka goes under thick security blanket
 A thick security blanket has been thrown around the capital with huge security personnel keeping a tight vigil to fend off any subversive act during a 24-hour hartal that began at 6pm on Friday as well as Saturday’s Dhaka-bound long march programme of Hefazat-e-Islam.

Intelligence sources said additional 8,000 policemen in uniform have been posted in the capital to maintain law and order from 6:00 pm on Friday.

Some pro-government organisations led by pro-Awami League Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and Progatishil Peshajibi Samonnaya Parishad, called the nationwide hartal to resist the Dhaka-bound long march programme.

Some 10 mobile courts, led by executive magistrates, have been conducting drives in the capital to summarily punish those who would try to create anarchy vandalising vehicles, making arson attacks on transports during the programmes announced by the  pro-government organisations as well as Hefazat-e-Islam, said a senior DMP official.

Besides, an adequate number of Border Guard Bangladesh teams are guarding different strategic city points from Friday evening, he said.

The DMP has taken the extraordinary security measures apprehending that vested quarters may conduct subversive acts in the capital in the name of pro-hartal activists.

Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (DB-PR) Masudur Rahman said the DMP has already taken adequate security measures from Saturday morning to thwart any unpleasant incident in the capital.

Check-posts have been set up at a number of city points alongside strict surveillance by plainclothes police, he said.

The government has already given conditional permission to Hefajat-e-Islam to hold a peaceful rally at Motijheel Shapla Chattar on Saturday morning. But tensions are growing as the pro-government organisations announced the hartal programme to resist the long march.

Inter-district bus services from different major districts, including Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Bogra, and Barisal towards Dhaka have already remained suspended from Friday morning in the name of security concern due to the hartal call.

Meanwhile, leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam alleged that the bus services were suspended so that their activists cannot reach Dhaka.

Intelligence sources said over 50,000 supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam have already reached the capital.

Source: UNB Connect