In a recent move, police have started asking building owners in the capital to stop running messes in their buildings and to not rent flats to bachelors.
Law enforcers have also warned building owners that they would be liable for any untoward incident which takes place in their messes.
According to police sources, officials from all police stations within the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) area had been warning building owners who run messes in their buildings in this regard, at the directives of high authorities of the police department.
Police sources said the directives came as a bid to stop criminal activities in messes, following a number untoward incidents in and around the capital.
They claimed they have acquired intelligence that some criminals, mainly the activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, had been carrying out unlawful activities while taking shelter in different messes.
Imtiaz Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Mirpur Division of the DMP, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are discouraging the house owners to run messes in their buildings because in many cases, criminals use the buildings as shelters for carrying out subversive and criminal activities.”
“It is very easy for criminals to take shelter in such messes, hiding their identities or using fake identities. We have faced and found many such cases where the criminals had been making bombs in these shelters and also carrying out other criminal acts,” he added.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, DC Imtiaz, however, agreed that the move might have left bachelors and a huge number of other people in difficulties but to that he said: “In emergency cases, we have asked the house owners to maintain CCTVs and allow tenants after verifying their identities.”
“Since many owners use their building to run messes commercially for extra income, they should have taken some responsibilities as well,” the DC said, adding: “As police keep residential hotels and slums under vigilance, criminals have opted for residential buildings to carry out criminal acts.”
Asked which buildings would come under surveillance, Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of Kafrul police station, said they had started to monitor all residential buildings that provide mess services within the station’s jurisdiction.
“The mess members are also under our surveillances”, the OC added.