Monday, November 16, 2009

Dhaka jail on high alert


Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday said the government has put all the law enforcement and intelligence agencies on highest alert ahead of the verdict in the Bangabandhu murder case on Thursday.
Meanwhile, on the eve of the verdict day, the jail authorities have put the highest security alert in Dhaka Central Jail where all the five death awarded prisoners are kept.
Special forces from the law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been deployed around Dhaka Central Jail while the jail authorities have installed special security arrangement for Rajanigandha cell where the five killers of Bangabandhu Lt Col (sacked) Syed Farooq Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda, Maj (retd) AKM Mahiuddin Ahmed (lancer) and Mohiuddin Ahmed are confined.
Presiding over a meeting of the heads of different law enforcement and intelligence agencies at the home ministry, the home minister yesterday asked them to remain watchful and work in coordination to avoid any troubles ahead of the judgment.
"We discussed on how to ensure law and order before important events, including the verdict, Eid-ul Azha, Victory Day and 31st December," Sahara Khatun told the journalists after the meeting.
The meeting also attended by State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku and Home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder claimed that the law and order in the last 11 months of the Awami League-led government was better than any other regimes in the past.
Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad and Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker were present at the meeting among others.
Sahara ruled out any possibility to disrupt the verdict of Bangabandhu murder case and requested people to stay calm as security measures have been intensified. "We are extra-cautious and have taken pre-emptive measures to avert any untoward incident," she said.
Indicating the anti-liberation forces and the killers of Bangabandhu, Tuku said they are on total alert so that there is no possibility of declining law and order. "We will foil such attempts," he said.
About bringing back the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu, Sahara said names of the fugitives have been sent to the Interpol for issuing a red alert.
“The killers are moving from one country to another. Detecting them has thus been difficult,” said the home minister.
Meanwhile, Towhidul Islam, superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, told The Daily Star yesterday, "The IG-Prisons, on November 15, directed us to maintain highest security measures in Dhaka Central Jail."
The Rajanigandha cell is located in a one-storey building near the scaffold of Dhaka Central Jail. The building has eight cells and the five killers of Bangabandhu are now in five of them.
Another source said special fence has been installed over the Rajanigandha cell after the Awami League assumed power for the second time.
A jail source said there is no scope for conversation among the five prisoners, but they each have a radio and regular supply of newspapers

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