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Living in danger

37 police and Ansar members at risk in run-down outpost

Jamil Mahmud with Anisur Rahman
Constable Sirajul Islam was covering a portion of the ceiling over his bed with a piece of rexine in his shabby room at Lalbagh Police Outpost barracks.
The ramshackle two-storey building has innumerable cracks, and in some places, bricks have come off the walls, creating large holes. So when he was hammering nails into the walls, it seemed the little force would be enough to make them collapse.
When cautioned against the possible danger, Sirajul said plaster was peeling off the walls and his sleep was disrupted when pieces of plaster fell on him.
"What shall we do? We have to live here, right?
"I pinned this polythene sheet under the ceiling a couple of weeks ago. Returning from duty this morning, I found that it was torn apart as several pieces of plaster pierced it," Sirajul said, pointing at a thin black sheet of blanketsize polythene.
His colleague with whom he shares the room on the first floor of the British era building shifted here after a large crack had appeared in his previous room.
"I never stayed in such a risky ambiance in my 26-year career in the police department," continued the constable who moved to the room three months back.
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Like Sirajul and his roommate, 35 other policemen and Ansar members have been spending their days in utter danger at the outpost under Chawkbazar Police Station.
Of the residents, 21 are constables, eight assistant sub-inspectors, seven Ansar members and one subinspector.
Some 14 to 15 camp members on average stay inside the barracks at night while the rest remain on duty, said Sub-inspector Harun-ur-Rashid, who is in charge of the camp.
Those who have night duties sleep in the daytime. They share nine rooms for living while one is used as office and another as arsenal, the SI said, adding that there were two more rooms but those were abandoned months back for having cracks on the walls.
"An accident may occur any time," he said, showing a large crack running from the roof down to the ground on the eastside wall of the building established in 1940 on 0.948 acre of land located near Lalbagh Shahi Mosque.
The police department set up the outpost there in 1973, Harun said.
A dispute over the ownership of the property arose after a local businessman submitted a writ petition to the High Court, claiming its ownership, he
said.
He could not mention the submission date of the petition.
Muhammad Touhidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (estate and development division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the authorities had sent a letter to the Public Works Department, asking it to renovate the building, as DMP did not have the logistics to do so.
The Daily Star could not reach the PWD for comments.
Touhidul, however, said he was not aware of the legal issue over the propertyownership.
Amid inaction of the authorities concerned, local people said they walked through the alley by the cracked wall in fear that it would fall down on them.
Bricks indeed fall down from the building's walls during the rainy season, said Azizul Haque, officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar Police Station.
He had written letters to the higher authorities concerned drawing their attention to the matter but no steps had been taken so far, the OC added.
Different high officials from the police department have visited the building and subsequently recommended its renovation, SI Harun said.
Echoing Azizul, he said very little had been done so far.