Bangladesh police has decided to form a new wing – Tourist Police – within this year, with a view to provide better security to tourists and help develop the sector as an industry. An initial organogram of the new police unit, headed by an additional inspector-general – who will be the director-general – has been prepared, with a strength of 2,712 members, and the proposal has been sent to the home ministry in December last year.
The headquarters of the new unit will be in Dhaka, while it will have four regional headquarters in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet. Each of the four regions will have two zones and the unit headquarters in Dhaka will have an additional zone, said a senior official at the police headquarters.
The unit headquarters will also have a deputy inspector-general as deputy director-general of the unit.
An additional deputy inspector-general will be the chief of regional headquarters as deputy director-general, while the zonal headquarters will be headed by the superintendent of police as director.
As per the proposed organogram, the unit will have six additional DIGs, 13 SPs, 38 additional SPs, six senior assistant superintendents of police and 80 ASPs. A total 1,572 constables will be posted in the new unit and 15 per cent of the total manpower will be female, said the police official.
Assistant inspector-general Atiqul Islam, of the police headquarters, said that the proposal for the Tourist Police has been sent to the home ministry at the later half of December last year, and it will now be sent to the finance ministry. “We hope the new police unit will be launched by this year,” he said.
Sources in the police headquarters said that the Tourist Police will be on charge of security at 41 tourist spots, including, Kaptai Lake, Patenga sea beach, Sitakunda, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Saint Martins Island, Maheshkhali, Hazrat Shahjalal shrine, Srimangal, Lawachhera rain forest, Jafflong, Madhabkunda water fall, Tamabil, Sri Chaitanyadeb temple, Gour Govinda Fort, Jaintapur Rajbari, Sripur, Manipuri tribal village in greater Sylhet, Kuakata, Mainamoti, Mahasthangarh, Ramsagar Lake in Dinajpur and Paharpur.
Another official at the police headquarters said Bangladesh police had initiated tourist police as a preliminary step in Cox’s Bazar on August 16, 2009. The initial tourist police unit has strength of one ASP, one inspector, three women sub-inspectors, 16 assistant SIs and 42 constables. Later, different district police unit formed a separate wing for security of the tourists under their respective jurisdictions.
The official said that dedicated tourist police had achieved significant success in reducing tourists’ harassments like burglary, mugging and teasing, in trial spots.
If the Tourist Police starts its activities as a full-fledged unit, the number of tourists will also increase in the country, which will increase revenue to the government exchequer, the official added.
