Dhaka, March 8 -- Sheikh Md Sajjat Ali, commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, or DMP, has announced that private security personnel stationed at shopping malls and residential areas across the capital will be appointed as members of an "auxiliary force" in an effort to bolster law and order in the city.

They will be given police-like powers, including the authority to make arrests, Sajjat said at a media briefing on Saturday to address the DMP's security plans surrounding the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.

"Since shopping centres will remain open late into the night and we have a shortage of police personnel, I am using my authority under metropolitan police law to appoint private security personnel as an auxiliary police force."

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