Bangladesh tells police to fire on radical attackers

DHAKA: Bangladesh has ordered policemen to shoot in self-defense if fired upon, the home minister said on Friday, after a policeman was killed in an attack claimed by Daesh militants.
Usually, policemen at checkpoints and guarding government installations have to get permission from their superiors or a magistrate before they can open fire. But a wave of attacks on bloggers and publishers for publishing articles critical of religious extremism as well as the killing of two foreigners have raised fears that militants are targeting its secular democracy.
“We have asked the police to counter any attacks on them. They can open fire immediately for their safety,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told Reuters.
On Wednesday, two men on a motorcycle stabbed a cop at a checkpoint in Ashulia, about 20 km north of the capital, in an attack that was later claimed by the Daesh. The men fled without the police firing a shot.