Sabotage attempts in Dhaka increased since polls schedule announcement: DMP

Sabotage attempts in the capital have become more frequent since the Election Commission announced the schedule of the 12th Jatiya Sangsad elections, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operations) K Mahid Uddin said today.

However, most of the sabotage attempts are failing due to police actions.

"The number of sabotage incidents, including setting fire on buses, is much less during the ongoing blockade program of BNP-Jamaat when compared to the attempts of the saboteurs," he said during a press briefing in Dhaka on Thursday (16 November).

"Cocktails were thrown in a few areas, but there was no major damage due to police action. If the arrested persons had the opportunity to use these explosive devices, the scale of the sabotage would have increased further," said the DMP official.

He also said 12 people were arrested from Bhasantek, Shah Ali and Shahbagh areas  in Dhaka with "explosive equipment" on Wednesday (15 November) after the schedule was announced.

The arrestees are - Mahfuz Hossain Muna, 20, Md Yasin, 19, Md Farhad, 19, Md Mahi, 18, Md Awlad Hossain, 18, Md Nasim, 18, Md Amzad Ali Hossain, 18, Md Tanvir Hossain, 18, Md Nizam Uddin Jasim, Noor Mohammad Shikdar, 23, Mohammad Bakhtiar Chowdhury alias Shaheen, 24, and Md Rubel, (20).

Mahid Uddin said eight of them were arrested from an under-construction building in Bhasantek.

Among the arrestees, Nizam Uddin Jasim is the joint general secretary of the BNP's Rupnagar unit, he claimed.

Meanwhile, in response to a question regarding the safety of parked vehicles, the DMP official said there is no parking space for the number of vehicles in the city.

"If there was a designated parking system in a secured area, we would have provided security there. But the cars are scattered across the city, and they [saboteurs] are taking advantage," he said.