The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Government has beefed up security for former premier Sheikh Hasina following Indian reports that Islamic extremists planned to kill her ahead of December 29 polls, an official said yesterday.

Home Affairs Adviser Maj Gen (Retd) MA Matin yesterday said that the government has taken necessary measures for the security of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina after a report in the Indian media.

According to a report run online by Indian TV channel CNN-IBN, Indian intelligence agencies have warned Bangladesh that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faces an assassination threat from a banned militant group.

The Home Adviser said that he saw the news in the newspaper. "We have taken appropiate measures in this regard… Inshallah there will be no attack," he told reporters at his ministry office premises.

The CNN-IBN report said Indian intelligence agencies have warned the country that a six-member suicide squad of the banned Harkat-ul-Jhad-al-Islami (HUJI) has been trained to excute the plot.

The report quoting sources in the Indian intelligence agencies told CNN-IBN that a HUJI team was trained for the last two months.

Responding to a question, Matin said, they already had meetings at division level about the law and order situation.

Matin assured that the law and order situation would not deteriorate during the eletion and post-election periods.

He mentioned that the government had enough preparation to tackle any situation during the election and post-election time. Director general of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker said they were investigating the threat reported by television channel CNN-IBN, which quoted unnamed Indian intelligence officials. Security has already been beefed up for Sheikh Hasina. The RAB and police are also making investigations into the threat, Khandaker said.

Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party and its allies are contesting elections that will transfer power to a democratically elected government after nearly two years of rule by an army-backed administration.

She was the prime minister of the country between 1996 and 2001 and was the target of an assassination attempt in 2004 when suspected Islamists threw grenades at her, killing at least 20 people and injuring hundreds of others.

Muslim-majority in the country has been hit by a series of attacks by Islamic groups in recent years - including 400 blasts on just one day in August 2005 carried out by the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Authorities have deployed nearly 50,000 troops in a bid to avert pre-poll violence.