Dhaka (PTI): A top police official in Bangladesh has called on every member of the police force to resume their duties gradually and maintain public safety and law and order amidst reports of attacks on the law enforcement authorities in the violence-hit nation.

Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) A.K.M. Shahidur Rahman, who was appointed as the focal person of the Bangladesh Police on Tuesday to handle the current crisis, asked his force to ignore rumours.

"The police are friends of the people and work for the public. We cannot imagine a society without the police. Therefore, I request our police members once again to ignore rumours and return to their duties in a phased manner, ensuring that security arrangements are properly in place," he said, emphasising the crucial role of the police in maintaining public safety.

Most police stations in the country, including the capital Dhaka, currently have no police personnel present, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Multiple police officers have reported that over four hundred police stations across the country have experienced attacks, vandalism, arson, and looting. In this situation, no one feels safe staying in their respective stations or offices, leading everyone to seek safe shelters.

A police headquarters official mentioned that the police have not faced such a situation since 1971, the report said.

In many places, clashes broke out between the police and agitated mobs. Consequently, law enforcement officers vacated various stations overnight.

After the attack on the police headquarters on Monday night, senior officials were evacuated to safety by helicopter. Many climbed over walls to escape the headquarters. Law enforcement broke down in Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on Monday, with police absent from their duty to keep law and order or manage traffic, bdnews24 newsportal reported on Wednesday.

Since Monday afternoon, the police presence in urban areas dwindled, and by Tuesday, the breakdown of the police system was evident throughout the country.

Attacks on police stations and facilities across the country, resulting in numerous police casualties, have led to this unprecedented situation, the report said.

As the army took charge following Hasina’s ouster and the death toll in the violence in which temples were also attacked rose to 440, President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved Parliament on Tuesday and appointed 84-year-old Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus as the head of an upcoming interim government.

Meanwhile, the readymade garment (RMG) and textile factories across the country will reopen on Wednesday, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper said.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex trade body of the country's RMG manufacturers, urged its members to open their factories on Wednesday.

BGMEA Director Mohiuddin Rubel, a participant at the meeting, told the paper that they were going to reopen their factories for the betterment of the country's economy and workers.

In a separate statement, Sulov Chowdhury, CEO of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), urged its members to reopen their factories as there is an announcement to keep industrial units open in the present context.

However, considering the current situation, he also urged the BKMEA member factories to ensure the overall safety of the factories, along with their workers.

 

 

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Srirangapatna (Karnataka), Nov 24: The Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka on Sunday said the Congress party’s victory in the bypolls held for three assembly constituencies is not a clean chit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the MUDA scam.

He said the case is still going on in the court of law.

“MUDA case against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is still in court but he is calling the bye-election result itself as a clean chit. Only courts can give clean chit and not the elections,” Ashoka said while addressing a gathering in Taggalli in Srirangapatna.

Later, speaking to reporters, Ashoka said results of the bypoll held for three assembly constituencies of Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur is a victory of money and not a victory of Congress. The BJP leader said his party’s fight will continue against the corruption of the Congress government.

ALSO READ; Have won in people’s court, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah on by-poll results

Separately, in a post on social media ‘X’, Ashoka said the ruling Congress is under the illusion that they have won three worlds just by winning the by-election by diverting money and winning the votes of one community through appeasement politics.

He took a dig at Siddaramaiah for his statement that the opposition had spread lies with regard to the allegation of "Rs 89 crore embezzlement" in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation.

“Didn't you yourself admit in the Karnataka assembly that crores of money were misappropriated in the Valmiki Corporation, is that a lie?” Ashoka questioned.

He has also asked the CM whether returning of 14 sites by his wife Parvathi B M in the MUDA scam was an indirect confession of his crime. “Is it a lie when the Karnataka High Court loudly said that an investigation is needed against you in the MUDA scam?” the BJP leader asked.

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