Dhaka: Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Thursday asked the intelligence agencies to find out whether there was any conspiracy by any third party behind the recent violence to create an anarchic situation like the ones occurred during the 2014 national election.

‘I would like to ask the intelligence agencies to dig out whether there was any third-party conspiracy in recent incidents (recent pre-polls violence),’ he said while addressing a meeting over election security strategy in the city, reports the UNB.

Top representatives from the police, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, Ansar and VDP, intelligence agencies and the Armed Forces Division as well as 66 returning officers and superintendents of police (SPs) of all the districts joined the meeting that started around 10 am at Nirbachan Bhaban.

The CEC said, ‘We can’t fully ignore some apprehensions. Some incidents occurred a day after the symbol allocation... two people were killed. The two lives are very much valuable. But why’re these incidents?’

‘We need to think whether there were political or social reasons behind the incidents or any conspiracy is being hatched to create a dangerous situation like that of 2014. Intelligence agencies will have to stay vigilant in this regard,’ he added.

Nurul Huda stressed the need for coming out from the blame-game culture in case of any incident and urged the law enforcement agencies not to take the law-and-order situation lightly.

The CEC said the election preparation and strategy need to be taken keeping in mind the violence unleashed during the 2014 national election.

‘We shouldn’t forget the situation of that election (January-5 national election). A dangerous situation had been created at that time. This time we need to work out the election preparation strategy in light of those incidents,’ he said.