Chiefs of three services – Army, Navy and Air Force – have met Chief Adviser to the interim administration Muhammad Yunus at a meeting to have discussion over the sliding security situation nationwide.
“A high-level meeting on the law-and-order situation in the country was held on Tuesday at the State Guest House Jamuna with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in the chair,” according to a press statement by the CA’s press wing.
The meeting came at a time when street protests by various groups keep the capital crippling on daily basis with tension escalated over reports of the government allowing a humanitarian corridor for Arakan in the country’s south-eastern border with Myanmar.
The forces are reportedly against the government move, which was made public by a senior foreign ministry official last month, of allowing the corridor.
The press wing statement said the meeting was attended by Adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs Lieutenant General (Retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain and National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman.
Chief of the Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan and Air Force chief Air Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, along with other senior officials, also attended the meeting.
It said, the meeting reviewed the law-and-order situation across the country. Senior security officials presented reports on the situation, it added.
The Chief Adviser underscored the need for maintaining a stable security situation in the capital and elsewhere in the country. He appreciated the efforts by the security forces in some of the high-profile incidents.
The high-level meeting took place less than 24 hours before Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman is scheduled to deliver an ‘officers’ address’ at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, sources said.
They added that the Army Chief’s meeting with the officers was originally set for Tuesday but was postponed to Wednesday without any stated reason.
Meanwhile, the CA’s meeting with security chiefs took place when the streets of Dhaka turned into a stage of relentless agitation, as daily protests by various groups continue to paralyse the capital.
From students to dismissed military personnel, and even banned political activists, the city is experiencing a dramatic rise in civil unrest in the last couple of weeks.
A group of dismissed army personnel gathered outside the National Press Club on Sunday, demanding reinstatement into service. Earlier all kinds of demonstrations around Dhaka Cantonment were declared banned.
Amidst protest by National Citizen Party and some Islamic parties, the interim administration slapped a ban on Bangladesh’s oldest political party Awami League’s activities on May 10.
Despite a government ban, prohibiting all activities of the Bangladesh Awami League and its affiliated organisations pending trials at the International Crimes Tribunal, the party’s supporters staged demonstrations in various locations across the country, including Dhaka.
Just as Jagannath University students ended their protest over unmet academic demands, supporters of mayor-designate Ishraque Hossain laid siege to Nagar Bhaban, urging the interim government to allow the BNP leader to take oath as the elected mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation.
Their demonstrations entered its sixth-consecutive day on Tuesday as protesters erected a makeshift stage blocking to the main entrance of the locked Nagar Bhaban.
The activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the BNP, has been staging demonstrations at Shahbagh intersection for past few days, calling for the arrest of those responsible for the killing of their leader, Shahriar Alam Shammo.
The JCD has threatened to escalate further by surrounding Jamuna, the official residence of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, if their demands remain unmet.
Several hundred garment workers of TNZ Group on Tuesday marched towards the Jamuna demanding their arears. They vowed to continue their protests. Some 1,058 workers of the TNZ Group owe around Tk 20.86 crore.