Govt to shut down schools, restaurants, hospitals operating without permission in Gulshan

The government has decided to shut down schools, colleges, restaurants and hospitals operating without permission in Dhaka’s Gulshan residential area.

The Cabinet committee on law and order took the decision in a special meeting on Sunday, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, who heads the panel, told reporters.

Ministers and state ministers of 12 ministries attended the meeting, chaired by Amu and held at the home ministry in the backdrop of two major terrorist attacks in Bangladesh this month.

Amu said measures will be taken to bring under supervision the establishments set up in an unplanned way in the Gulshan residential area.

Installation of such establishments will be stopped in future, he added.

“Closing down those set up without permission has been recommended.”

The move comes a week after 22 people – 20 hostages and two police officers - were killed at an upscale cafe at Gulshan-2 in the deadliest terror attack in Bangladesh.

On the night of Jul 1, a group of gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen at the sensitive diplomatic zone. They killed the hostages, mostly foreigners, during the overnight siege before being shot dead by army 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. Four people, including two policemen, were killed.