Staff Reporter :
The government has instructed to install CCTV cameras in all puja mandaps mandatorily to ensure security during the Hindu Community’s largest religious festival Durga Puja beginning from October 1-5.
Ansar members will be deployed permanently in the puja mandaps and they will keep continue vigilance even after ending of the puja until further order to avoid unwanted incidents. Besides, mobile courts will also be active in puja mandap areas.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said it on Sunday while talking to reporters at his secretariat office after a meeting on law and order on the occasion of Durga Puja.
There will be about 32,168 puja mandaps across the country this year.
Instructions have been given to limit the use of sound devices during Azan and prayers times, the Home Minsiter said, adding that “Though the members of law enforcing agencies were mobile in the past, now the members of Ansar will perform full-time duty in all puja mandpas this time. Every mandap must be under CCTV mandatorily and the mandap authorities will also have their own volunteers. They have to wear armed bands for identification. Along with these measures, the mobile court will also be active.”
Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “There was no CCTV camera installed at Nanua Dighir Par puja mandap in Cumilla last year despite instructions from the administration. The miscreant (who had placed the holy Quran at the mandap) could have been instantly arrested if the temple was brought under CCTV coverage.”
The incident that took place on 13 October led to communal attacks on few Durga Puja mandaps as well as Hindu properties last year.
Police arrested 35-year-old Iqbal Hossain, a resident of Sujanagar area under Cumilla City Corporation, from Cox’s Bazar in connection with the incident.
The Home Minister said that members of law enforcement agencies and Ansar will be posted at the mandaps this year unlike the previous year when law enforcers discharged their duties just patrolling the mandaps due the Covid situation.
The minister also said that law enforcers would monitor social media platforms and take steps if anyone spreads rumours online.
When asked whether there is any security threat during Durga Puja, he replied, “Our intelligence has no such information in this regard.”
