Dhaka: Police stations which were deserted during the peak of anti-government protests in Bangladesh are slowly resuming normal activities with the help of the army. This information was received from media reports on Friday. Student-led protests forced Sheikh Hasina to resign as Prime Minister and leave the country. After that, the activities of all police stations came to a standstill. Many police stations were attacked, looted and set on fire, causing many officers to evacuate their stations and hide as they feared further attacks. More than 400 people, including police personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Activities started in police stations

The Dhaka Tribune newspaper quoted military and police officials as saying that after about four days, activities have resumed in about 29 police stations with the help of the army. On Thursday, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government. He has expressed his commitment to restore law and order in the country.

Steps taken to strengthen security

Shakhawat Khandakar, Company Commander of the 25th East Bengal Regiment, said, “Seeing how criminals were killing people, including the police, we decided that it was very important to save the police personnel. They serve the people, we needed to give them a chance to reform.” Khandakar said, “There are many weapons in Tejgaon police station. If these fall into the hands of criminals, the country will be in serious danger. So we took steps to strengthen the security of the police station.”

‘Ready to serve’

Tejgaon Deputy Commissioner of Police Azimul Haque said, “We are grateful to the army personnel who came forward to save our police personnel and played an important role in protecting the lives and property of the people. Today, we have started all police activities with the help of the army. I request all citizens to come to the police station. We are ready to serve you.” He said that three out of the six police stations in Tejgaon Mandal have become fully operational. Haque said, “Small scale work is going on in the affected police station. Meanwhile, many policemen have joined work in the police stations, others have started coming. We hope that all our policemen will join the work place.” According to a press release issued by the police headquarters on Thursday, people from all walks of life, including leaders of various political parties and students, are providing all possible help to the returning policemen so that they can come to their work place safely.