Fearing subversive activities, authorities concerned took special security measures yesterday in Chittagong city’s state-run fuel depots, refinery installations, and major Key Point Installations (KPIs), as some senior officials of vital state-run establishments received sabotage attack threats by SMS.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) had already imposed an embargo on plying motorbikes and CNG-run auto-rickshaws from Cement Crossing-Airport Bypass road until the next order, while all vehicles were asked to run on the city’s main roads on the stretch without stopping transports, said CMP sources.
CMP Commissioner (Acting) AKM Shahidur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune they had set three special check posts in the entire port zone to monitor public movement so as to evade any kind of untoward situations.
“Additional police forces, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, and the respective establishments’ Ansar men are kept on the highest alert,” he said.
The depots of state-run fuel companies such as Padma, Meghna and Jamuna, the Eastern Refinery, Shah Amanat International Airport, Chittagong Port, Bangladesh Naval Academy, Bangladesh Air Force’s Jahurul Haque Base, Chittagong Boat Club, Chittagong Golf Club, Patenga Sea Beach, and Karnaphuli River’s opposite bank adjoining Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited, Bangladesh Marine Academy, Bangladesh Coast Guard Eastern Zone Base, and other KPIs are in the area, said CMP sources.
CMP Deputy Commissioner (Port Zone) Harun-or-Rashid Hajaree told Dhaka Tribune that some officials of the fuel depots and other adjoining areas received threats of sabotage attacks via SMS to their personal phone numbers.
“We have met with the respective establishments’ senior officials, and have been instructed to be cautious of their regular works. Besides, visitors in these areas are being kept under intensive monitoring,” he said.
A CMP senior official said the BNP-Jamaat-minded establishment officials have sent the SMS threats, though police are investigating the matter.
The names of the officials who received threats were not revealed due to security reasons, added the Deputy Commissioner.
The country’s key fuel and fuel refinery installations are in a mere 2.5 mile area in Patenga, along with other KPIs. There are an international airport, a sea port and 46 KPIs in Chittagong under the A, B and C categories, out of 394 KPIs in the country.
During the recent blockade and hartal enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, the trend of targeting important government and private establishments and Key Point Installations (KPIs) was seen mostly in Chittagong.
Pickets target important government and public establishments nearly every day, and have blasted crude or petrol bombs in front of those establishments, or its neighbouring areas, to damage infrastructure and create panic amongst locals, police said.
