Bangladesh, Struggling to Restore Order, Gives Army Policing Powers
Bangladesh’s interim government on Tuesday granted the army special powers to maintain law and order, a sign of the country’s continuing instability after its autocratic leader fled last month following widespread protests.
The new order, while falling short of an emergency declaration, gives army officers wide-ranging local policing powers. They can now issue search and arrest warrants and are authorized to disperse large gatherings.
The Ministry of Public Administration said the powers would last for two months and would apply across the country of 170 million people. Asif Nazrul, the interim government’s top law official, told local news outlets that the measures were needed because of public disorder in several parts of the country, including industrial areas.
There have been reports in recent weeks of attacks on Bangladesh’s long-persecuted Hindu minority, as well as on the shrines of Sufis, an Islamic sect seen as heretical by many fundamentalists. Operations at garment factories, a main driver of the country’s economy, have been affected by the insecurity.
The sudden departure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for India on Aug. 5, after a crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters, plunged the country into near-anarchy.
The police disappeared from the streets, fearing for their lives, after dozens of officers were killed. The police had been responsible for most of the killings of protesters and were widely seen as an extension of Ms. Hasina’s political party.
The resulting vacuum was filled by mob rule and revenge killings. Students took up the task of managing the notoriously congested traffic in Dhaka, the capital.
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate who became Bangladesh’s interim leader days after Ms. Hasina fled, has struggled to restore order. Police officers have gradually gone back to their jobs, but many don’t venture far from their stations, and their confidence and credibility are low. Many officers returned to work in civilian clothes, under the protection of the army.
Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, a Dhaka-based security analyst and a former senior officer in Bangladesh’s military, said the army had already taken on much of the work of law enforcement in recent weeks. The new temporary powers, he added, will help officers carry out those duties more effectively.
“There has to be a legal cover behind it,” Mr. Choudhury said.
