Addressing a high-level meeting at the ministry he cautioned that "certain quarters were bent on vitiating and destabilising the social and business environment by resorting to gruesome crimes".

The monitoring meeting on the law and order situation of Dhaka metropolis was held at the home ministry at a time when a spine-chilling news report of the grisly triple-murder of a wealthy businessman, his son and their car driver hit headlines yesterday.

Home Secretary Muhammad Omar Faruque, Inspector General of Police Shahudul Haque, DMP Commissioner Ashraful Huda and Additional Inspector General of Police in charge of the newly raised Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Anwarul Iqbal were present.

The meeting reviewed the performance of civil teams, mobile courts and block raids carried out in various thanas in the city during the past three days.

The meeting was told that some enlisted criminals were arrested and a good quantity of ammunition and narcotic substances recovered in the latest special anti-crime drive.

"Besides, rigorous checks of motor vehicles were undertaken at various traffic points and some vehicles seized or recovered," says an official press release.

Some progress was also made with regard to solving the logistic, personnel, financial and transport problems of the civil teams, it observed.

Babar said 90 civil teams deployed in as many wards of the city "should gear up their activities in concert with" the respective police stations.

He called for constant monitoring and supervision in order to elicit accountability on the basis of outputs and outcomes.

The state minister urged the law-enforcing agencies to take "all-out measures for swift prevention, detection and investigation of crimes".

Babar put stress on adapting a `carrot-and-stick' policy for rewarding achievement and punishing failures of the police personnel.