After a fire incident at the administrative center, the Secretariat of the Bangladesh government, the Ministry of Home Affairs has imposed strict controls. On Friday, through a press release, Khoda Bakhsh Chaudhury, the Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, in charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs, issued this directive via an office order. It states that in the interest of enhancing overall security at the Bangladesh Secretariat, all types of temporary passes, including those for non-government individuals, have been canceled except for permanent passes issued to Secretariat employees and government officials. The accreditation cards issued to journalists for access to the Secretariat have also been canceled until further notice. It is further stated that this order was issued in light of the security disruption caused by the fire incident at the Secretariat.
At 1:52 am on Thursday, a mysterious arson incident occurred, leading to the deployment of 19 fire service units to the site. The fire, which raged for almost 10 hours, inflicted damage on four levels of the Secretariat — specifically the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th floors. Although the fire was brought under control by 8:05am, it was only completely extinguished around 11:45 am. The whole complex is highly secured and under coverage of powerful camera surveillance.
It is noteworthy that since the interim government took charge, a significant number of journalists’ accreditation cards have been canceled, leading to widespread criticism both domestically and internationally. Through this current directive, access for all journalists has been canceled.