Will closing businesses foil terrorism?

Closing down businesses in the capital is unlikely to stop terrorism, a leading urban planner has said. Instead of carrying out a sudden drive to evict establishments, the government and Rajuk should instead move forward with a thought-out plan,  Prof Nazrul Islam, the chairman of Centre for Urban Studies, told the Dhaka Tribune. To make the eviction plan a success, the government was now linking militant threat to commercial establishments, Prof Nazrul said, pointing out that these same service providing outlets had been set up in front of government authorities with permission from Rajuk and city corporations. Thousands of people may end up suffering if the government sticks to its plan of evicting commercial outlets from Dhaka's Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas, he warned. “Any instant step or eviction of commercial establishments is not the only solution to stopping militancy and ensuring security for the posh areas, some of which are also in the diplomatic zone,” Prof Nazrul said. Because of the government's systemic fault, not only 13,000 commercial outlets would be evicted from the city, but a crisis would be created for the locals and lead to unemployment for the staffs, the retired Dhaka University professor cautioned. His comments came after the government sent notices to owners of around 13,000 commercial establishments that have reportedly been set up in residential areas. The decision was made in line with a government announcement from April 4 this year that said all of Dhaka city’s unauthorised commercial establishments including bars, residential hotels and private universities will have to be shifted from residential areas within the next six months. The notices were sent in the wake of the Gulshan terror attack, which claimed the lives of 24 people. Prof Nazrul also pointed out that such a mass eviction would cause a massive blow to business owners who have invested crores and crores of taka, the employees whose livelihood depends on these outlets and many who depend on their services. “This [eviction] means not only the investors will be in loss, but their employees, locals, foreign guests will also face a crisis,” said Nazrul, who previously taught urban development planning at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. He also expressed doubts on whether the government’s intention would be of any success as similar attempts had failed in the past. “A huge number of people have got permission for seven-storey buildings but they build fifteen-storey buildings. The BGMEA building was also built in such an illegal way. Why did these authorities not stop such establishments when they were being built?” Prof Nazrul said. ‘Decision not a new one’ According to Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq, the decision of eviction was not a new one, but only emphasised the quick implementation of an earlier decision. “The government had made the decision earlier and given a six-month ultimatum to all unauthorised establishments in residential areas. So, the government has to start the eviction drive immediately because of the militant attack on Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan,” he said. He, however, did not explain how terrorism was linked with the unauthorised establishments. The mayor added that the decision came after a green signal from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who wants to see Dhaka as a liveable and secured city. Despite repeated attempt for comments, Rajuk Chairman Md Bazlul Karim Chaudhury did not receive any phone call. ‘Eviction will stop criminals from scoping targets’ The police have said that militants would not be able to monitor their targets if unauthorised establishments in Dhaka were evicted. After the recent terror attack, police found that militants were using aliases and not staying at a single place for long as part of their strategy, said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. “On the other hand, analysing recent video footage and other things, we found that if attackers do not get chance to stay in any locality for a long time, they will not be able to observe their targets so easily. So, their possibility to monitor their targets will come down,” he added. If the locations of hotels can be spread out, setting up hideouts and observing targets would become very difficult for terrorists, Masudur said. The DMP official also requested people to install CCTV cameras at important places and hotels, homes, and shopping malls as law enforcers would then get a sense about the persons or groups engaged in terrorism. Fee for conversion of lands hiked by 750% The only way to do business legally in residential areas is to convert the residential lands to non-residential ones. But, the option seems unfavourable as the government – apparently to discourage commercialisation of residential neighbourhoods – has increased fees for converting land category in Dhaka’s more upscale areas by 750% over the past few years. Rajuk, the capital’s development authority, in December 2012 fixed Tk50 lakh for the conversion of a plot from residential to commercial, and Tk30 lakh for residential to non-residential, in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas. For Uttara and Nikunja, except along the Dhaka-Mymensingh road, the conversion fees were fixed at Tk25 lakh for residential to commercial and Tk15 lakh for residential to non-residential.