A number of senior police officials said in the last two days they had received death threats from unknown numbers on their phone.
Meanwhile, with the law and order situation apparently deteriorating, the police chief was prompted to hold an emergency meeting with officials of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday.
Across the country, miscreants attacked police stations and senior police officers, and bombs were exploded at the office of the deputy commissioner of Motijheel division on Saturday.
Admitting to the incidents of police being threatened, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker told the Dhaka Tribune thºat law enforcers did not care for such threats.
“As a professional force, and as the successor to the force that was first to resist the Pakistani occupation army on March 25, 1971, the police are not afraid,” said the IGP, adding that such threats had also been made in the past.
When asked what was being done about these calls, the IGP said they were investigating the identities of those responsible for the calls.
Sources said a number of officials, including the DMP’s deputy commissioners (DC), superintendents of police (SP) of districts and officers-in-charge of stations received threatening SMS and phone calls.
Biplob Kumar Sarkar, DC of DMP’s Tejgaon division said that he and his colleagues had received phone calls and SMS with threats.
“The messages and calls came from phone numbers outside the country,” said the DC, who also alleged that supporters of Jamaat-Shibir might be behind them.
He said at least three OCs of Tejgaon division had been threatened.
When asked about the threats, the DC said the unidentified callers threatened dire consequences for them, and added: “They said as the government’s tenure nears its end ‘you cannot escape punishment for your misdeeds’.”
Meanwhile, an emergency meeting was called by the IGP at the DMP headquarters on Saturday afternoon, which was attended by various commissioners, DCs, assistant commissioners (ACS) and OCs.
Speaking with the Dhaka Tribune, the IGP Talking said he has directed DMP officials to discharge their duties properly.
Sources at the meeting said the IGP had asked police personnel to stay mentally strong and to take strict action when necessary.
Quoting the police chief, a senior DMP official said: “It is not our duty whether the election would be held or not. Our duty is to keep law and order under control.”
The police chief also told law enforcers to stay alert and asked them not to move on their own when in uniform.
Meanwhile, Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir on Saturday in a press release refuted media reports that its supporters had been involved in the recent violence and threatening the police officials.
The statement said: “It is proved that violence does not take place if the police and the government’s cadres attack [on us]. Chhatra Shibir activists build resistance only when they are attacked.”
