Ensure security for foreigners

The home ministry and the police headquarters have directed deputy commissioners and superintendents of police in all districts to beef up security for foreign nationals in their areas and maintain regular contact with them.

All SPs and field-level units of intelligence agencies were given the instructions hours after Japanese national Kunio Hoshi was gunned down in Rangpur on Saturday. 

Barely five days before the murder, Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead in the capital's diplomatic zone.

Home ministry sources said the government might impose restrictions on riding of a motorbike by more than one person, as the murderers used motorbikes to kill the two foreign nationals.

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque told The Daily Star that he had made a request to the home minister to this effect.

On security of foreign nationals, he said, "We have given verbal and written instructions to all superintendents of police to take necessary security measures for foreigners staying outside the capital." 

Meanwhile, security was strengthened in the diplomatic zone of the capital's Gulshan and Baridhara. Law enforcement agencies yesterday introduced temporary passes for visitors to the zone.

Rafiqul Islam, DMP assistant commissioner of Gulshan Zone, said those who are not permanent residents of the zone would have to collect passes to enter and exit the area.

According to police sources, their headquarters asked all SPs to give them details on the foreigners staying in the districts, their activities and the security measures taken for them.

This correspondent yesterday talked to four SPs who said they received directives from the police headquarters.

AKM Ariful Haque, additional SP of Jessore, said he got instructions from the headquarters to provide special security to foreigners in his area.

"We are alert and are providing adequate security to foreign nationals in Jessore," he said, adding that at least 18 foreigners are now staying in the district.

Talking to reporters at his Secretariat office, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the government already engaged intelligence agencies to track down the killers of the two foreigners.

He hoped the mystery behind the murders would be cracked soon.

Replying to a query, the home boss ruled out the Islamic State's (IS) links to the killings, saying there is no existence of the IS in the country.

The minister claimed the two foreigners were murdered as part of a scheme to create instability in the country.

Our Dinajpur correspondent adds: security was heightened along Bangladesh-India borders in Dinajpur and Joypurhat, and also at the immigration section of Hili land port so that the killers of the two foreigners cannot flee to India.

Md Rafiquzzaman Rafique, who is in charge of the immigration section, said they stepped up security at the port and were scrupulously verifying everyone's travel documents to prevent the murder suspects from crossing the border.