Intelligences agencies have prepared a list of troublemakers and kept them under strict intelligence surveillance countrywide, ahead of 11th parliamentary elections, police said.
A senior police official, preferring anonymity, said on Monday the government had asked the law enforcers to keep an eye on the listed rabble-rousers.
Home Ministry sources said police and elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have started their homework on the strategy of tackling anti-government movements ahead of the next parliamentary elections. There is a plan to conduct special drives across the country to prevent any subversive activities in the form of street movements.
Not only police and RAB, intelligence agencies are also updating the list of field level leaders and activists of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and other likeminded parties, keeping an eye on those who are already named as accused in vandalism, arson and bomb attack cases.
Drives will be conducted against those who may carry out acts of sabotage in the name of movement as they did in 2014 and 2015, sources added.
Law enforcement agencies are on high alert to prevent any untoward incidents, especially by keeping an eye on potential saboteurs, to make the upcoming national election peaceful.
The agency members along with intelligence wings are listing troublemakers that include underworld criminals, members of terror outfits and anti-liberation forces in order to keep law and order under control during the elections on December 30, said top officials of the agencies.
Special drives will also be conducted against those who are likely to plan sabotage before and after the election, they added. Home Ministry sources said political cases in which many anarchists are named but remain absconding have been revived. Emphasis was given to recover illegal firearms. Licenced arms holders will also be considered so that nobody can use these weapons during the elections, said a top police official wishing not to be named.
The large number of arrests of opposition activists is a relevant signal of the preparations. BNP claimed that the government has launched a large scale arrest drive against it ahead of the upcoming national elections.
Wishing anonymity, a number of police officials said they are preparing full profiles of suspected people and their political affiliations-affiliation of their family members too will be investigated.
Citing intelligence information, they said there are risks that BNP and Jamaat-Shibir (Jamaat's student wing) activists may wage movements over election time government and call for strike and other forms of protest to press for their demands.
Police will remain alert to prevent any kind of sabotage during these programmes, said sources.
In addition to arresting people in old cases, police are also filing new cases across Bangladesh naming BNP central leaders, though most of the cases are filed in districts particularly in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar, Bogura, Chapainawabganj, Sirajganj, Joypurhat, Comilla, Feni, Lakshmipur and Satkhira.
BNP resorted to violence before and after the 2014 parliamentary elections, demanding the restoration of the caretaker government and elections under a non-partisan government.
Scores of people were killed and hundreds of vehicles destroyed in arson attacks during their months of street protests before the elections.
