Home adviser calls emergency briefing on law-and-order situation at 2:30am

Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has called an emergency meeting at 2:30am amid calls for his resignation by protesting students for failing to tackle the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the county.

The adviser is expected to address the ongoing law-and-order situation at the briefing,  Faisal Hasan, public relations officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs, confirmed to The Business Standard in the early hours of Monday (24 February).

The briefing will take place in his residence in Baridhara DOHS, Dhaka.

The briefing comes as a group of protesting Dhaka University students have issued an to the adviser to resign within 1:00pm Monday for failing to tackle the spiralling deterioration of the country's law-and-order situation.

They issued the ultimatum after a short procession on the DU campus in the early hours of Monday (24 February), shortly after a jewellery trader was shot in the capital's Banasree by unidentified men.

"Extortionists have risen again in the country. That means the home affairs advisor is unable to take effective action. You have given magisterial powers to the army. What role is the army playing?" one of the protesting students, Shakib Ahmed, said during a rally at the Anti-Terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture after the procession. 

"Today, we want to announce from Raju Memorial Sculpture that if the home affairs adviser does not resign by 1:00pm on Monday, we will take action at the field level. They will have to give an account of what each of them has done in the past six months," he added.

Another student, Nurul Gani Chagir said, "We want to say clearly - if you cannot solve the problem with your police, army, or RAB, then leave the responsibility to university students. We will not allow a single kidnapping or rape to happen in the country from today onwards."

Similar protests have taken place at Rajshahi University as well, where students also demanded Jahangir's resignation.

Netizens have also made similar demands on various social media platforms.

Earlier, around midnight, a gold trader and was robbed and shot in the capital's Benasree. This came on the heels of numerous incidents of crimes which have rocked the country in recent weeks.

Earlier today, RAB Director General AKM Shahidur Rahman said the country's overall law and order situation can worsen in Ramadan as "extortionists backed by political parties are now committing robberies, mugging and other crimes amid a crackdown on extortions following the mass uprising on 5 August 2024".