By NNN-BSS,
Dhaka, Bangladesh : The home affairs adviser, Major General (retired) M A Matin, said the caretaker administration is taking all preparations to ensure free and peaceful elections.
Besides ensuring security to the VVIPs, appropriate steps would be in place for the VIPs, he added.
“It’s a challenge for us to hold free and fair elections, acceptable to all,” he said, adding, “we hope we will shoulder the responsibilities, entrusted to us.”
The law and order, he assured, would not deteriorate after the withdrawal of state of emergency.
But the law and order during the elections, he told reporters
after an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue on Sunday, was not the responsibility of the government alone.
General Matin said the politicians should play an effective role for the maintenance of law and order during the elections.
A three-tier security ring would be in place around 35,500 polling centres across the country on the day of election, Home secretary Abdul Karim said.
The BDR director general Major General Shakil Ahmed, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) director general Hasan Mahmood Khondokar, Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad and Election Commission (EC) officials attended.
The home secretary said the election officials including the presiding officers will reach the voting centres a day before the voting.
Each of the polling stations would be guarded by 13 to 15 law enforcement personnel on the election day, he said.
In each district, he said, three to four platoons of striking force comprising BDR, RAB, the Coast Guards and Ansars will be ready to rush where necessary, he said.
A monitoring cell will be in place at the home ministry four days ahead of the elections, he said.
Already, he said, several criminals were nabbed in the drive for the recovery of illegal arms in progress to ensure peaceful holding of elections.
Everything will take place under the directive of the Election Commission, he said.
The army and the navy, he said, would be deployed under the Aid to Civil Power Act.
The security system, he said, would be in place for the five zones of metropolitan area, the plains, the coastal belt, the hilly areas and the border belt.