State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar at a meeting yesterday asked the Rab authorities to place a proposal to raise the number of its battalion from 10 to 12, sources said.

"Countrymen became panicked due to bomb attacks being carried out by the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen

Bangladesh," Babar told reporters emerging out of the meeting.

"Two more new battalions are likely to join the Rab to bolster its capacity so that it can root out militancy from Bangladesh," he was quoted as saying by the BSS.

Once the proposal is approved, the 8,000-member force will be increased by another 1,376.

Presently, five battalions operate in and around Dhaka, and others have to cover 12 to 13 districts. Pressure on each unit increased immensely after militants went on bombing spree since August 17. Besides, the Rab authorities have to summon reinforcement from outside Dhaka on occasions like Eid, Puja, ijtema and major political programmes.

"Each unit struggles to cope with the immense pressure when we call it back to Dhaka for 15 days or so," a top Rab official told The Daily Star.

With the top JMB leaders still evading the police dragnet, Babar asked Rab officials to beef up their intelligence network.

"The militants will be ideologically broken if the top leaders are arrested. We're working on it round the clock. In fact, they're being demoralised day by day," Babar told reporters.

He, however, refused to accept the notion that Rab intelligence failed to find whereabouts of top JMB leaders. "They're doing very good...they're making arrests."

Asked whether a new law is necessary to combat militancy, Babar said: "Of course. We've many limitations in existing laws. We need new law to fight militancy."

Rab Director General Abdul Aziz Sarker, Home Secretary Safar Raj Hossain and all commanding officers were present at the meeting.