Staff Correspondent

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Thursday said none of the police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel was allowed to open fire and they had to work in line with the country's constitution.

"But some of the law enforcement agency members might break the law on the ground. We will bring those to book too following the independent judicial probe," he said at a press briefing held at the secretariat, reports BSS.

Mentioning that the government never wanted any casualty, the state minister said the government has also respect to the emotions of the protesters, who are still demonstrating on the streets by singing Ganasangeet and chanting slogans.

"But we want to request them to play a responsible role so that the third party cannot enter their demonstrations and carry out destruction again as it [the third party] is lurking in the dark to push the country into an anarchic situation."

Arafat referred to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's address to the nation on 16 July when she made some commitments, including the formation of a judicial commission over the six deaths on that day and assurance of meeting students’ demands.

"If we could remain patient following the prime minister's commitments she made in her address to the nation, the third party could not have infiltrated to cause the rest of the deaths," Arafat said.

He added, "Therefore, I would like to call everyone to remain patient, control emotion and think logically [to avert any unwanted situation in future]."

The state minister said only terrorists will be brought to book based on specific evidence and no innocent students will be harassed.