Police intensified search operations at the three entry points of Dhaka – Aminbazar, Ashulia and Birulia – this morning ahead of today's rallies of Awami League and BNP in the capital.

Law enforcers, mainly police, started today's checkpoint operations around 6:00am.

While visiting the checkpoint set up in front of Aminbazar 20-bed hospital on the Dhaka-Aricha highway, our Savar correspondent reported that the hospital has been turned into a makeshift detention centre as over 100 people, who police said failed to give satisfactory answers, were held there till 9:30am.

Around 9:40am, a prison van carrying some of the detainees started towards Dhaka, the correspondent reports from the spot.

He further said police and some plainclothesmen with walkie-talkies were seen stopping Dhaka-bound vehicles and interrogating the passengers. They were also randomly searching passengers' luggage.

Photo: Palash Khan

Pedestrians were being interrogated at the checkpoints and then allowed to continue towards Dhaka.

Meanwhile, a five-kilometre-long tailback was created in Hemayetpur area on the highway due to the checking.

Photo: Aklakur Rahman Akash

Abdul Ali, a Dhaka-bound passenger who worked at a private company in Farmgate area, told this correspondent that this was causing nothing but hardship to the commuters.

Dhaka District Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abdulla Hil Kafi said, "There are rallies of two political parties in Dhaka today. the police checkpoints were set up to ensure that no one can enter the capital to commit any sabotage or create chaos."

Photo: Palash Khan

Regarding the detention, he said, "We will not call it is detention. In facts, persons those who are suspected are being kept in our custody for some time for questioning."

Asked how many people have been detained, arrested or kept in custody so far, he said the actual number could not be mentioned right now.

While talking to The Daily Star, Khorshed Alam, former joint secretary of Dhaka District Jubo Dal, claimed that those who appear to be activists and leaders of BNP are being detained at the checkpoint and sent to a nearby hospital.

There are also many ordinary people, he said. "The arrest and detention of the activists on their way to a DMP-approved rally is heinous. We condemn it," he said.