The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mamunur Rashid

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) launched a special intelligence unit yesterday to monitor the activities of political parties.

The Awami League and Jamaat in their instant reaction to the formation of the unit branded the move "unfortunate and undemocratic."

Bangladesh's main political parties have been mounting pressure on the military-backed interim government to end the 19-month-old emergency powers rule.

Naim Ahmed, Dhaka Metropolitan Commissioner, told reporter, "We created the Political Intelligence Operation (PIO) to gather reports of what they (political parties) plan to do in advance."

"The PIO will not only keep track of the activities by political parties and allied organisations but also have an overall responsibility to help ensure a peaceful public life," he said.

Suranjit Sengupta, a former member of the parliament and senior leader of the Awami League, while talking to the New Nation described the PIO as "unfortunate, undemocratic and unconstitutional."

"The main task of the police is to track down and punish criminals, not to put a trail on political parties and their activities," he said.

The main task of the police was to protect politicians not to monitor them, he added.

"Such a move is possible only where politics is banned. That's why we want political activities to be fully restored."

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh told the New Nation that the main task of the police was to punish those who were destroying the country's wealth, including setting fire to the garment factories and those who wear blue helmet and plunder country's resources.

Police forces need to do their routine job, not to monitor the political parties and their activities," he said.

The three biggest parties, the Awami League, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islam want the government to lift the emergency that was imposed in January 2007 after months of political violence.