Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Dhaka remained virtually cut off from the rest of the country from last night as law enforcers have urged transport owners to restrict the movement of traffic by roads and water ways while facing filtering of passengers with intensified security checks. If the situation worsens the shut down may continue until further order.
The law enforces are trying to dry the arrival of BNP leaders and workers to the capital to take part in rallies and procession in the event the party chief is convicted by the Special Court in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
All eyes are fixed on the old city Special Judge Court; which may deliver the verdict ant time in the noon. Tension also runs high across the country as people wonder what this verdict makes so much sensation when thousands of verdicts run unnoticed throughout the year.
BNP is taking the verdict seriously in the wake of the ruling party’s assertion that she will be punished and they believe it is part of the government strategy to discredit her and keep her out of election.
Khaleda Zia will appear before the court at 10 am but it is not sure whether party men like other occasions will accompany her. Meanwhile additional police forces have been deployed around her Gulshan residence and BNP central Office in the city’s Naya Paltan area.
In the city police barriers have been set up at frequent distance. Even rickshaw movement is facing trouble at many places while city dwellers are facing police obstacles and questioning during their movement.
The government fears BNP workers may engage in subversive activities if the verdict goes against the party chief. Meanwhile the government has deployed BGB along with huge number of police in other districts and keeping watch on the situation throughout the country.
Law enforcers have also intensified crackdown on BNP leaders and activists in the capital and all over the country so that the situation does not go out of control. Police have also started searching vehicles and suspected people while entering the capital, as they fear BNP men may take to the streets in the event of “unfair” judgment convicting Begum Zia in the case today. They have also set up check-posts at 13 entry points of the capital from outside to prevent BNP men from entering the city. They also continue drives at different residential hotels, mess-houses of students and bachelors to detain people suspected to be BNP activist in the capital.
Plain cloth detectives are also watching on Sadarghat Launch Terminal and Kamalapur Railway Station and other bus terminals so that no troublemaker can enter the city. All important city points have been brought under CCTV cameras to check untoward incidents.
BNP high command has asked party men to take position around the makeshift special court in the old city from Thursday morning, defying all obstacles in order to stage a big demonstration if Khaleda is convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust Graft case.
In another directive it has asked party men to protest peacefully around the court and embrace mass arrest to protest the party Chief’s conviction.
Meanwhile, the DMP has set up three-tier protection belt around the court to protect the court from subversive attacks.
DMP’s Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman told The New Nation that adequate plainclothes police and members of different intelligence agencies have been deployed at the city’s different strategic points, besides several thousand regular police force to maintain law and order.
“We will take stringent measure if any one breaks law to create trouble. No chaos will be tolerated over the court verdict,” he added.
