Bangladesh says police can fire in self defence if attacked
By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh has given policemen permission to shoot in self-defence if fired upon, the home minister said on Friday, after a policeman was killed in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants. Until now, policemen at checkpoints and guarding government sites could only fire on the orders of superior officers. In certain circumstances, they needed a magistrate's permission. On Wednesday, two men on a motorcycle stabbed a policeman at a checkpoint in Ashulia, about 20 km (13 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, in an attack that was later claimed by Islamic State. The men fled without the police firing a shot. That killing, attacks last weekend on bloggers critical of religious extremism as well as the killing of two foreigners have raised fears that the jihadist group is targeting its secular democracy. "We have asked the police to counter any attacks on them. They can open fire immediately for their safety," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told Reuters. The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said the Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the policeman's killing. Khan rejected that and pointed instead at the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami. "This is nothing but a plan to destabilise the country and create panic among the police," he said. No one at Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in Bangladesh, was available to comment. A BNP spokesman, Asaduzzaman Ripon, said, "This is nothing but an attempt to repress us and keep us away from politics." Bangladesh's government has put several Jamaat-e-Islami leaders on trial on charges of war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence and believes some of its members are instigating attacks by militant groups. Police said this week that a group called Ansarullah Bangla Team was suspected of being behind Saturday's attacks on bloggers in Dhaka. On Friday, police detained five activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, the party's student wing, a police official said. "All of them were detained with several jihadi books, (Molotov) cocktails and other explosives in the city while they were in a meeting in a building," Kazi Moinul Islam, officer in charge at the Khilgaon police station, said. He told reporters that the five men were suspected of carrying out attacks that killed two people and wounded dozens as Shi'ite Muslims gathered for a procession in the old part of Bangladesh's capital on Oct. 24 to mark the holy day of Ashura. (Editing by Louise Ireland)
