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DHAKA, Aug 23: The government of Bangladesh on Monday ordered the armed forces, paramilitary troops and the police to remain on "red alert" to thwart any acts of sabotage, highly placed sources said.
According to the sources, the deputy commissioners of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet have been empowered to call in the army at any moment if the civil administration faces difficulty in tacking the law and order situation.
The decision came at a meeting the junior home minister held with the chiefs of the Bangladesh Rifles, Rapid Action Battalion, coast guard, police and the Ansars (volunteer force) on Monday afternoon.
The three-hour long meeting beginning feared that attempts could be made on the lives of top government and opposition leaders, and asked all law enforcement agencies to strengthen their ranks.
The participants also feared attacks on power stations, Bangladesh Radio, Bangladesh Television, railway stations, airports and sea ports during a two-day Awami League-sponsored strike beginning on Tuesday.
The Awami League on Monday refused Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's offer to visit its chief, Sheikh Hasina, at the latter's Dhanmondi residence, and asked the government to quit office and accept responsibility for Saturday's bomb attacks.
"We cannot allow her (prime minister) to come here when her government refused to hand over bodies of those killed in the deadly bomb attack on Saturday," AL general secretary Abdul Jalil told reporters at Sheikh Hasina's residence in Dhaka. "
The prime minister will not be welcome here." In this connection, Jalil also referred to Khaleda Zia' statement during the last session of parliament when the Awami League had informed the House that Sheikh Hasina had received a death threat in Istanbul. "Who will kill her (Hasina) there?" Khaleda had wondered then.
However, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's aides communicated to Sheikh Hasina's advisers on Sunday night that the premier wanted to see the latter, who narrowly escaped in Saturday's attack.
Hasina's aides told their counterparts that she would let the prime minister know after consulting her (Hasina's) adviser on the issue, Harirs Chowdhury, a political secretary of the prime minister, told newsmen. Until Sunday midnight, the opposition party had not communicated anything to Khaleda Zia. On Monday morning the Awami League rejected the proposal.
DELHI OFFERS ASSISTANCE: New Delhi offered assistance in probing Saturday's attack on the league rally. The Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Veena Sikri conveyed New Delhi's willingness to assist Dhaka in the investigation when she called on Foreign Minister Morshed Khan at the his office on Monday.
"We've offered our help in the investigation of Saturday's attack. We too take the incident seriously and we want to work with Bangladesh," Veena Sikri told waiting reporters.
While talking to newsmen at the foreign office, the Indian high commissioner claimed that Morshed Khan described the situation to her as a "national crisis" and conveyed to her the seriousness of the government in addressing it.
The Pakistan High commissioner in Dhaka, Manzar Shafiq, has also condemned the "terrible terrorist incident", and hoped that those would be brought to justice.
"In common with all civilised people and governments, we strongly condemn this act of terrorism and hope that the persons guilty of such incident against people of Bangladesh are speedily brought to book," a message of sent to the AL chief said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Sheikh Hasina on Sunday night, condemning the attack, said a press release issued by the US embassy in Dhaka.
