Cabinet committee on law and order holds special meeting following terror attacks

The Cabinet committee on law and order has convened a ‘special meeting’ in the backdrop of two major terrorist attacks in Bangladesh within a week, officials said.

They said the meeting, chaired by committee chief Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, started around 11:30am on Sunday at the home ministry’s conference room.

Ministers and state ministers of 12 ministries are attending this meeting, which is not a regular one, a home ministry official told bdnews24.com.

They include Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon and Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc.

Among other top officials of different law enforcing agencies, IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque and DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia are also attending the special meeting.

On the night of Jul 1, in Bangladesh’s deadliest terror attack, a group of gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen to kill 22 people, including foreigners and police officers, during an overnight siege before being shot dead by commandos the next morning.

On Jul 7, in the morning of the Eid-ul-Fitr, a police check-post near the Sholakia Eidgah ground, which hosts the country’s largest Eid congregation, came under a terrorist attack.

Bomb blasts by the terrorists and a firefight between them and police had left four people, including two policemen, dead.

Middle East-based terror group Islamic State had claimed responsibility within hours of the Gulshan attack, reported SITE intelligence, but IGP Hoque says members of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh carried out both attacks.

DMP chief Mia said ‘smart and talented’ officers of his force were probing the cafe attack. But they may take technical help of foreign countries - either Singapore, India or the US - in the investigations.