Naya Paltan now a ‘crime zone’, newsmen also banned

The newsmen were allowed on the road in front of the BNP headquarters until around 2:00pm

Staff Correspondent

Dhaka

The head office of Bangladesh Nationalist Party on 8 December, 2022.Prothom Alo

The police have declared the Naya Paltan area in the capital as a ‘crime zone’ and barred all, including the newsmen, from entering the area.

The newsmen were allowed on the road in front of the BNP headquarters until around 2:00pm. Later, the police marked the area as a ‘crime zone’ and barred public movement there.

During a visit to the spot around 1:45 pm, it was seen that the reporters were stopped in front of a barricade set up at the Nightingale intersection on the way to Naya Paltan.

Biplab Kumar Sarkar, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), requested the reporters, who were staying in the area since the morning, to leave the spot.

“You (journalists) will go outside after I finish speaking. We will make arrangements for you to stand outside where you feel comfortable. Our drive is not over yet,” he said while talking to reporters in the area marked as 'crime zone'.

He also said, “We cannot imagine that bombs will be found in the office of a political party. We cordoned the area off as a place of bombing. Our expert team is working on it."

“We have information that they (the BNP men) stockpiled bombs. We have banned movement on this road until the risks are dispelled,” he continued.

Later, the newsmen took positions outside the Nightingale intersection. When the curious people thronged there, the police chased them away.

Two vehicles of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) entered the area around 2:00pm. The bomb disposal unit also took position there earlier.