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Police have raided 1,132 restaurants in Dhaka over the last three days in the wake of the deaths of 46 people in a blaze that ripped through a building housing several eateries on Bailey Road last month.
During these operations, they arrested 872 people and registered 20 cases. People were prosecuted on 887 instances as part of the campaign crackdown, Dhaka Metropolitan Police announced in a statement on Wednesday.
It said they are conducting raids on hotels, restaurants, risky shops selling gas cylinders, and chemical warehouses in the capital.
Over the past three days starting from Sunday, they raided a total of 1,347 establishments, including 1,132 hotels and restaurants, 207 gas cylinder shops, and eight chemical warehouses, it said.
The deadly blaze raced through the seven-storey Green Cozy Cottage, mostly housing restaurants, on Thursday. Since then, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, police, and other government agencies have been taking action to check if the safety systems comply with the law.
The crackdown was questioned in parliament for ‘a lack of coordination’.
Restaurant owners, frustrated with the drive, said that the authorities have been pouncing on them “like hyenas”.