He made the remark emerging from a closed-door meeting with several other ministers at his secretariat office in the evening.
Asked about the meeting, the home minister said they exchanged views on the country’s prevailing situation. “Especially, the incident of attack on police by bigots in Rajshahi hurt us.”
It would be very difficult to ensure people’s security unless seditious and fundamentalist forces are curbed from the society as well as from the country, he said.
“A crackdown against the fundamentalists will be conducted in Rajshahi region, even across the country to curb fundamentalism, if needed,” MK Alamgir said.
About the April 6 long march of Hefazat-e Islam, he said the meeting observed that there is no logic to create obstacles to peaceful long march. “We’ll ask the organisers to peacefully observe the long march.”
About Tuesday’s countrywide shutdown, the home minister said there is no ground for BNP and its allies to call the shutdown.
He also claimed that 18-party alliance itself fired gunshots targeting the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office to drum up public support in favour of their hartal. “Police have been asked to arrest miscreants and take action under the existing laws,” he said.
The meeting started at about 2:15 pm and lasted for about three hours. Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Environment Minister Hasan Mahmud, State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Hoque Tuku, State Minister for Law Advocate Quamrul Islam, State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif attended the closed-door meeting.