Security mismanagement has made the city dwellers’ every day’s life almost miserable in several posh residential areas due to lack of coordination among the law enforcement agencies and other residential authorities concerned.
As an example, a car which has got entry pass from Gulshan area, it will have to show separate entry passes if it wants to go to Baridhara, Niketon, Mintoo Road, DOHS and other areas in the city.
Apart from law enforcement agencies, the local housing societies, flat owners associations, local [moholla] committees and other organizations have taken security initiatives as their own way.
And taking this opportunity, a section of dishonest people has allegedly started “entry pass” business in the name of security.
As a part of their initiatives, they have been issuing entry passes for the vehicles in exchange of certain amount of fees, which sometimes varies from Tk 500 to Tk 1000.
Expressing annoyance, some car owners have complained that they are forced to take the security passes by giving fees, whether they all have National Identity Cards and other identity cards of their offices while students have ID cards of their educational institutions.
They also questioned how many entry-passes a person really needs. Why it needs to pay high amount of fees to get a card? Would these passes ensure their security?
While visiting Gulshan area, it was seen that entire diplomatic zone has been taken under special security arrangement involving police, RAB and members of other intelligence agencies.
There are separate check posts at the entrance of Gulshan-2, Nutan Bazar, Kala Chandpur, Baridhara DOHS, lake side area and some other spots. The security personnel are checking vehicles at every check posts.
When asked, a security personel said they were discouraging outsiders from entering diplomatic zone, except those reside here or having emergency duties. The security personnel are also checking bags of pedestrians on the footpaths, he said.
Police said before Holey Artisan Bakery attack, the private cars used to go through diplomatic zone taking a short-cut to reach Nikunja-Uttara or Baridhara from Gulshan.
Now, the police are disappointing the vehicles from taking the short-cut. This type of security arrangement would continue until the militant attack is stopped forever in the country.
Security expert Major General [retd] Abdur Rashid recently said: “At first, it needs to create a safe environment first… It is not possible to provide security to 16 crore people individually. There may be an apprehension of terror attack, even after getting assurance from law enforcement agencies.”
Not only that, the rickshaw pullers have also been brought under special security arrangement at diplomatic zone, issuing them security passes. For that reason, scarcity of rickshaws is also a common scenario in diplomatic area.
The local housing society members of Gulshan and Baridhara said selected 1,500 rickshaw pullers have been trained on security systems so that they can also act as police informants. Personal information of all the rickshaw pullers has been kept by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Shamsul Arefin, member secretary of a coordinated committee that deals with issues of the four societies, said: “For any kind of crime, transport is a major factor. So, if the rickshaw pullers can see any occurrence happening, they can inform the police. In such a way, they will act as informer of the police on crime events.”
