The government has also asked all diplomats in Dhaka to be extra careful and cautious while they go out of the missions and residences and asked them to keep the Foreign Ministry informed of their movement, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

The government's advice came after US-led military attacks on Iraq began last Thursday that apparently created insecurity across the world.

The official said the government has asked the diplomats, especially US Ambassador Mary Ann Peters and British High Commissioner David Carter, not to go outside their missions or residences without prior permission of the government.

This is not restriction, but to ensure their security, the source noted. The Home Ministry will provide security personnel and escort if they want to go outside their offices and residences, the official said.

Eight check posts manned by a large number of Armed Battalion Police personnel have been set up in the diplomatic zone. Other measures, including introduction of a modern traffic system, have been taken so that no criminal can enter the diplomatic enclave or escape after committing any crime.

Paramilitary of the Bangladesh Rifles mounted on six vehicles and many policemen are patrolling the diplomatic zone round the clock. Police are checking offices, residences, clubs and schools there every half an hour and maintaining registers.

Presence of uniformed and plain clothes intelligence officials has been increased in the area.

The foreign diplomats last week asked the government to beef up security steps in the enclave.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people of different political parties, groups, organizations are staging anti-war marches in the capital Dhaka everyday, in which they burnt the effigies of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tonny Blair.

Defying strong security measures, the Civil Society Against War, a new organization formed with judges, lawyers, journalists and cultural personalities, will lay a siege Tuesday. The Islamic Constitutional Movement, a religious party, has also announced a siege plan of the US embassy on March 29.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2003)