Citizens who catch miscreants responsible for violence during strikes and blockades will be rewarded, the state minister for home has said.
Published : 20 Jan 2015, 02:44 PM
“There are rewards for those who hand over to police miscreants, who set fire to public property or throw bombs,” Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters in his office on Tuesday.
He said the Home Ministry will soon make a formal announcement on this issue, but did not mention how much the rewards would be worth.
This year began amid a violent blockade by the BNP and its allies pressing for a snap election.
At least 27 people have been killed and hundreds of vehicles damaged since BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia called the blockade on Jan 5.
Ministers, High Court judges, magistrates and police, too, are being attacked.
On Saturday, miscreants bombed a bus carrying policemen in Dhaka, leaving five of them wounded.
Last week, several improvised bombs exploded at a programme attended by the health minister, several days after the house of the law minister was bombed.
An executive magistrate's vehicle was attacked in Feni on Jan 9, while the house of Chapainawabganj's chief judicial magistrate was bombed a day later.
Two High Court judges who embargoed media coverage of Khaleda's elder son BNP leader Tarique Rahman were also attacked.
Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque's ancestral home was torched in Feni on Jan 8. Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman's Dhaka residence came under bomb attack hours later.
The government blocked several instant messaging applications, including WhatsApp and Viber, citing 'security concerns'. Law-enforcing agencies say saboteurs were using them to communicate among themselves.
"Miscreants are communicating via Twitter and e-mail now," the state minister said. "We've shut these applications to identify them."