Polls to witness record security

Army personnel patrol the streets of Dhaka yesterday to ensure security for today's national elections. The photo was taken at a street in Paltan.Photo: STAR

The government has deployed about six lakh security personnel across the country to ensure the holding of a free, fair and neutral parliamentary election peacefully.
The security members include 50,000 army personnel, 70,000 policemen, 6,500 Rab members and 4.66 lakh Ansars.
This is the first time that such huge numbers of security personnel are deployed across the country for holding the national polls peacefully.
Besides, Bangladesh Rifles members would keep guard in 70 of 87 frontier upazilas and army personnel in 16 upazilas to ward off any subversive act.
Moreover, 18 units of strike forces comprising members of Bangladesh Navy and Coastguard will remain vigilant in the coastal zones.
Election Commission and home ministry sources said the army personnel will be ready as strike force while the members of Rab and police will remain vigilant as both strike and mobile force.
Sources said special security measures have already been taken in the hilly and Haor areas with deployment of additional security personnel.
Home Secretary Maj Gen (retd) Abdul Matin yesterday said highest security measures have been taken across the country for holding the ninth parliamentary election peacefully.
Rab Additional Director General Gulzar Uddin Ahmed told The Daily Star that Rab members would remain vigilant in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Deployment of law enforcers at the polling centres began at 6:00am yesterday. Election materials were taken to the remote polling stations under protection of security personnel.
Officials of the home ministry and the EC said police, Rab, armed police battalion and Ansar personnel had already been deployed across the country.
In the Dhaka city alone 38, 928 members of police and Ansar have been deployed, they said.
Besides, the army personnel will be ready as strike force in the district and upazila headquarters to deal with any situation.
The EC and the home ministry have divided the polling centres across the country into two categories -- normal and important. Of the 35,315 centres, 20,865 have been marked important and 14,350 normal.
Of the polling centres, 33,185 are located in plain lands and 2,130 in the special zone.