Bangladesh's top police official urges policemen to resume their duties and maintain public safety
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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Syria says Israeli strikes leave 18 dead in the biggest toll since the war in Gaza began
Masyaf (Syria), Sep 9: The number of people killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Syria has risen to 18 with dozens more wounded, Syria's health minister said on Monday — the largest death toll in such an attack since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
One of the sites targeted was a research centre used in the development of weapons, a war monitor said. Syrian officials said civilian sites were targeted.
Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas — a Hezbollah ally — in Gaza.
However, the intensity and death toll of Sunday night's strikes were unusual.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.
Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes hit several areas in central Syria, damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires, Syrian state news agency SANA said.
Speaking to reporters, Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash described the strikes as a “brutal and barbaric aggression”. He said the death toll had risen to 18 with nearly 40 wounded.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said 25 were killed, including at least five civilians, while the others included Syrian army soldiers and members of Hezbollah and other Iran-linked armed groups.
One strike targeted a scientific research centre in Masyaf, and others struck sites where “Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria”, the observatory said. It said the research centre was reportedly used for developing weapons, including short- and medium-range precision missiles and drones.
Minister of Electricity Mohammad al-Zamel said the strikes had caused “truly significant” damage to water and electricity infrastructure.
“This brutal attack targeted civilian targets, and the martyrs were mostly civilians, as were the wounded,” he said.
Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous, which the observatory said were the result of air defense missiles falling.
On Monday afternoon, a charred car remained at the scene of one strike and smoke was still rising from some spots where fires had been put out.
