Around 10,000 policemen will be on duty across the capital to ensure smooth activities of the city dwellers during Wednesday’s Jamaat-sponsored countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal. Besides, 14 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh already started patrolling the city street from Tuesday evening, several hours ahead of the shutdown. Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday called the daylong hartal for Wednesday protesting the Supreme Court judgment that upheld the death penalty of condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning upheld the death penalty of Mir Quasem Ali for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Md Maruf Hossain Sorder said adequate numbers of uniformed police alongside plainclothes ones will be deployed from 5am on Wednesday to avert any unpleasant incident in the city. Besides, plainclothes men carrying still and video cameras will remain standby in different strategic city points to identify the troublemakers during the hartal hours, the DC (Media) added. Sources at the BGB headquarters said 14 platoons of BGB were patrolling the city streets from 6pm Tuesday to strengthen security patrolling alongside other law enforcement agencies. They will continue patrolling till 6am on Wednesday.—UNB, Dhaka
