New Year welcomed amid tight security
New Year 2017 was ushered in through celebrations on Saturday night amid tight security as police and Rapid Action Battalion put restrictions in Dhaka and other metropolitan cities in a bid to ward off any untoward incident.
President Abdul Hamid, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia in separate messages greeted the country people.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police urged the city dwellers to stay alert on the eve of the celebrations.
All forms of outdoor gatherings and celebrations were banned from 8:00pm on December 31 to 6:00am on January 1.
Around 10,000 law enforcers were deployed in the city to maintain order in the capital.
Traffic across Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Dhaka University areas were monitored and entry of outsiders to these vicinities was restricted, during the period.
Almost all the residents in these areas had to return homes by 8:00pm.
Those areas were accessible only through Kamal Ataturk Avenue at Kakoli and Amtoli intersection at Mohakhali, which triggered huge congestions in the afternoon.
DMP commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia earlier requested all to notify the law enforcers if case of any suspicious activities.
The security was reorganised at five-star hotels, churches, and other crowded places in the capital, police said.
The police said barricades were set up to check drunken driving and stunt biking as well.
The police restricted entry into TSC area after 8:00pm on December 31 to prevent overcrowding of the popular celebration point.
No untoward incident was reported until 10:00pm on Saturday.
Dhaka University correspondent reported that the DU authorities imposed a ban on all kinds of celebration, open concert, use of loudspeaker or gathering inside its premises on the eve of New Year 2017.
DU asked all inhabitants residing on the campus to get back to their respective dormitories and residences by 8:00pm.
A new Gregorian calendar year is celebrated universally every year on January 1 that usually begins at zero hours.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha adds: President Abdul Hamid on the eve of the New Year said that though the celebration of Bangla New Year merged with the national culture, the English New Year influenced all because of the widespread use of the English calendar in daily activities.
‘The outgoing 2016 was a glorious year in the history of the Bengali nation . . . let the New Year bring in all our lives untainted happiness, peace and prosperity,’ prime minister Sheikh Hasina said in her message.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia urged people to work together to turn the New Year a year for democracy, peace and progress.
She expressed hope in the beginning of the New Year that killing, enforced disappearances and all sorts suppressive brutalities would come to an end.
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