Security tightened in Bangladesh on New Year's Eve

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks, Dhaka has been put under tight security for New Year's Eve, the Bangladesh capital's police commissioner said on Thursday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah told a press briefing that they had made security arrangements throughout the capital city.

He said the DMP would set up scores of check-posts in all strategic points in Dhaka to check unruly mobs on the eve of the New Year.

Some 10,000 police will be deployed on different strategic points to avert any untoward incident.

Police check-posts had already been asked to do stringent checking of vehicles, he said.

The senior police official advised Dhaka residents to return home by 8:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile, he said firecrackers and fireworks had been prohibited.

On security grounds, the DMP commissioner said all forms of gathering and celebrations outdoors had been prohibited from dusk on Dec. 31.

Posh Dhaka areas had been brought under a security blanket with the deployment of a large number of policemen.

No incidents of indiscipline, including reckless driving and dancing on Dhaka's streets, would be tolerated on Dec. 31 night, he added.

Unprecedented security measures have reportedly been taken in other major towns and cities, including seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka.

Sources said the stringent measures in Dhaka came amid threat of an increase in militancy.

On Saturday two suspected militants, a female and boy, were killed in separate suicide blasts during a raid on a hideout of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh(JMB) in Dhaka.

During the raid, four people also surrendered to the police along with a pistol and several bullets.

Mia said those who surrendered included Jebunnahar Shila who was identified as the wife of slain Major (retd) Jahidul Islam, militant commander of Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) blamed for the July 1 attack on a Spanish cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter.

The attack left 20 people, most of them foreigners, dead.

At least four people were dead, including two constables and an attacker, after explosions and gunfire on Thursday morning at the entrance of Sholakia Eid prayer venue in Kishoreganj district, some 117 km northeast of Dhaka. Endit