Staff Reporter :
Following intelligence reports that militants might be trying to attack a major Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) establishment or a mosque inside DMP premises, police high-ups have instructed all units to stay alert against allowing unknown persons or vehicles access inside cop zones.
The instructions from the Police Headquarters included keeping an eye on Muslim devotees before they enter mosques inside DMP areas for Friday’s Juma prayers.
Directives were also included to beef up security at all police establishments in the capital like the DMP Headquarters, the Crime Command and Control Centre, and the police lines of Rajarbagh and diplomatic security. In instructions issued last week, the DMP further asked its personnel to secure all its arsenals, and to note down phone and vehicle numbers of any outsider who enters DMP establishments.
A senior DMP official, requesting not to be named, said the instruction followed intelligence reports suggesting the possibility of DMP establishments being attacked by a terrorist or militant outfit.
Officials at all 49 police stations in the city have been instructed to stay alert about any suspicious activities by a Muslim devotee – as they might be militants in disguise – before they enter mosques.
Orders have also been issued to remain vigilance during big gatherings such as Juma prayers.
However, DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam assured that Muslim devotees had no reason to be afraid when they come to Juma prayers. The initiative to beef up security at mosques has only been taken out of concern for the safety of the devotees, he added. The latest militant threat comes after several mosques came under attack in recent months, a pattern of terror not common in the country.
In December last year, two youths entered a mosque in Rajshahi’s Bagmara and set off a bomb that killed one person. The same month also saw six persons being injured when hand bombs exploded inside a mosque in the Navy’s secured Isha Khan Base in Chittagong’s Patenga. In November last year, gunmen opened fire on devotees at a Shia mosque in Bogra’s Shibganj upazila during Maghrib prayers, killing the muezzin and injuring three others.
