One in every four polling centres found risky

A quarter of all the polling centres are "risky", according to police.

"There are around 42,149 polling centres across the country and 10,300 are risky," Anwar Hossain, deputy inspector general (operations) of the Police Headquarters, told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said, "We described the centres as risky or important based on some criteria."

Polling centres which are near a candidate's home or in remote or hilly areas have been declared "risky". Besides, polling stations that are in poor condition are also called risky, the officer explained.

Anwar said that a day before the election day, January 7, police personnel and presiding officers will go and stay at the centres in remote or hilly areas.

Elsewhere, they would go in the morning of election day, he said.

The cops will stay until the announcement of the results of a polling centre. They will also take all the election materials to the returning officer's office.

Asked about the security for the "risky" polling centres, Anwar said additional law enforcers will be deployed there.

A home ministry circular, issued on December 21, stated that a maximum of 15 to 16 police personnel, Ansar, and village police members will be deployed at polling stations in metropolitan areas. In hilly and remote areas and in "risky" polling stations, 16 to 17 police personnel will be on duty.

There will be patrol teams, strike force, and mobile teams to ensure security too, said DIG Anwar.

Regarding the "risky" polling centres in Dhaka Metropolitan area, DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman yesterday said half of the 2,146 polling centres in the capital are "risky".

"There are also many remote centres within the city as voters will have to use trawlers to go there," he said while talking to reporters after an event at Rajarbagh Police Lines School and College.

Meanwhile, in 16 constituencies of Chattogram, around 73 percent of polling centres have been marked as "risky".

Police said 1,488 out of 2,023 centres have been declared "risky" based on candidates' influence, election atmosphere, and previous incidents of violence.

Chattogram Metropolitan Police has marked 446 centers out of 660 as "risky" under its jurisdiction while the district police has also identified 1,042 out of 1,363 stations "risky" in 16 upazilas.

Of them, Sandip upazila and its remote island "Urirchar" have been marked as "highly risky". Coast guard members will be deployed on the island along with police personnel on the election day.

CMP Commissioner Krishna Pada Roy said, "In every important [risky] centre, four armed police personnel will be deployed along with 15 Ansar members to maintain a peaceful election atmosphere so that voters can cast their votes without any fear."

Chattogram-15 (Satkania-Lohgara) has been marked as one of the "highly risky" constituencies by police. Saktania police has marked 52 centres as "highly risky" and Lohagra police has declared 67 centres as "risky".

Abu Tayeb Md Arif, additional superintendent of Chattogram police, told this newspaper, "A team of three armed police members will be deployed along with 15 Ansar members and other security personnel in risky centres to fend off any untoward situation."

Police said violence may take place in Chattogram-15 (Satkania-Lohagara), Chattogram-16 (Banskhali), Chattogram-12 (Patiya), Chattogram-1 (Mirsarai), Chattogram-3 (Sandip), Chattogram-10 (Uttar Kattali-Halishahar) and Chattogram-11 (Bandar-Patenga) as independents are contesting there against candidates of Awami League and its allies.