The authorities concerned have set up new check posts in the city and formed watch teams. According to a report of an intelligence agency, Islamist militants and operatives of an underground organisation are on the move to attack the city in the guise of street vendors, day labourers, rickshaw-pullers and beggars.

A senior official of KMP told The Daily Star that watch teams are keeping vigil and they are tracking movements of people they suspect to be militants and extremists. Security measures at important places including the railway station and bus stops have been heightened.

The KMP officer also said a special operation is underway to arrest 313 listed extremists, 40-murder suspects, 10 extortionists and eight muggers. Most of them are activists of different political parties and operatives of underground organisations, he added.

"We are also trying to arrest the founder of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) Janajuddha faction. We have information that he came to Khulna recently and held a secret meeting with his cadres at Khalishpur in Khulna city," KMP Commissioner Khan Saeed Hasan said.