Those who carried out acts of violence in recent days centred on the quota reform movement are enemies of the state and have no place here, a senior army officer has said.
The army, police, RAB and BGB were coordinating in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, New Market, Mohammadpur and adjacent areas to identify and arrest those involved, Brigadier General M Imran Hamid, commander of 46th Independent Infantry Brigade of the army, told journalists yesterday.
Imran said he believed that students had not been behind the destruction. “When we visited the damaged properties, people who were there also said the vandals were not students.”
He remarked that those behind this were people who wanted to destroy the country, adding that troops had been deployed to protect state properties.”
The officer thanked the people for abiding by the rules of the ongoing curfew and hoped to get further cooperation from them.
“… the Bangladesh Army is a well-trained force, and we know what needs to be done.”
He added that the troop deployment was aimed at removing the lawbreakers and providing some relief to the people.
Imran hoped that the army’s work would be finished soon and “return to our barracks.”
“We have information that some criminals are still out there to achieve their ill motives,” he said, adding that the combined forces had already made some arrests yesterday (on Tuesday).