Police have placed the country on the highest security alert after an intelligence assessment warned of planned sabotage targeting key infrastructure, including the elevated expressway and railway lines.
The intelligence report says the banned Awami League has planned to temporarily cut road and rail links between Dhaka and northern Bangladesh by setting up sudden barricades on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, the elevated expressway, and at New Market and Nimtoli railway gates.
It also alleges that activists may pose as garment workers to create artificial unrest, vandalism, or arson in factories to halt production and damage export earnings, and may force or mislead ordinary workers into flash rallies.
The report further says that outsiders linked to the banned group could use crowded hostels and slums in Gazipur and Tongi as hideouts, stage flash rallies of 10-15 people, and detonate cocktails to spread fear.
Police Headquarters' AIG (Media) A H M Shahadat Hossain said intelligence surveillance is ongoing and all units have been instructed to take immediate strict action if any incident occurs.
Railway Police chief and Additional IGP Barrister Md. Zillur Rahman said patrols at stations and platforms have been increased, suspicious persons and abandoned objects are being monitored, and passenger searches have been tightened.
The intelligence report says the banned group's leaders and activists have become more active after news that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is in India, may return to the country in December, and that some have entered Bangladesh illegally to stage flash rallies.
Police said a nationwide 'pincer operation' will begin within days and that no one will be allowed to carry out sabotage.