Around 90 of the total 574 councillor candidates of different wards in both the two city corporations in Dhaka are under surveillance by the intelligence wing of police allegedly for threatening their rivals during the polls campaigns.
According to sources, most of those candidates already have been summoned by the law enforcers and also warned them for not to carry out such unsolicited rivalry.
Police officials concerned said they are keeping strint vigilance on about 100 such candidates who are vying for the positions of ward councilors.
Officials at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) also said for the purposes of holding the elections smoothly and peacefully, they also have formed a special team at each of the eight divisions in the capital.
As per information received, supporters of two councillor candidates in Ward-50 were locked into clashes in phases from last Thursday.
Besides, a large number of councillor candidates from both the DSCC and DNCC alleged that they were being threatened by the cadres of their opponent candidates.
In this circumstance, 17 of the candidates under Motijheel division, 15 under Wari, 18 under Ramna, 21 under Mirpur, 19 under Uttara and 14 under Lalbagh division are being watched for their movements and activities.
According to sources, apart from police, personnel from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and other intelligence agencies have also been put on alert so that the election is held peacefully and no untoward incident takes place.
Colonel Tofayel Mostofa Sarwar, Additional Director General (Admin) of the RAB, said that as per the directives from the Election Commission (EC), they were working for the purpose of holding the city elections peacefully.
“All the RAB personnel are ready to tackle any type of situation during the city polls”, he said and added as saying that additional forces have also been deployed in many different areas.
According to EC sources, at least 53 candidates are considered to be vulnerable as each of them are accused in at least 15 to 20 cases related to arms, drugs, extortion, murder and other criminal charges.
But, police and other law enforcement agencies have been asked for not to arrest or take legal actions without the permission from the EC.
Additional Commissioner (Detective Branch) Abdul Baten of the DMP said that everything will be for holding the city polls peacefully.
“A coordinated body has also been formed comprising officials from all the agencies”, he said.
