---

Special Security Force Bangladesh

The Presidential Security Force Ordinance (PSFO) established a security force which is to be under the direct command of the president and controlled and administered by a director who may be invested with the powers of the chief of army staff in respect of operations of the force. The force may seek the assistance of other services, such as law enforcement agencies, paramilitary forces and defence and intelligence agencies.

Ex President Hussain Muhammad Ershad initiated the idea of forming a force solely responsible for the physical protection of the VIPs. Accordingly Presidential Security Force (PSF) was formed on 15 June 1986. Later with the introduction of Parliamentary Government System in Bangladesh, the force was renamed as Special Security Force on 27 September 1991.

The force was originally intended to “provide physical security,” both to the president wherever he may be and to VIPs (including any head of state or government or any person declared to be a VIP by the government). Following restoration of the parliamentary system, it was renamed the Special Security Force (SSF) whose primary function is to protect the prime minister, the president and other VIPs. Its work also includes “collecting and communicating intelligence affecting the physical security of the prime minister, the president or a VIP”. The SSF is now accountable to the prime minister under the present parliamentary system and is given the power to “arrest without warrant . . . any person when there is reason to believe that the presence or movement of such person at or near the place where the prime minister, the president or a VIP is living or staying or through which he is passing or about to pass is prejudicial to the physical security of the prime minister, the president or such VIP; and if such person forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him or attempts to evade arrest, such officer may use all means necessary to effect the arrest and may, if necessary and after giving such warning as may be appropriate in the circumstances of the case or otherwise so, use force against him as to cause death”.