DHAKA: President Francois Hollande has announced that France will not extend the state of emergency imposed after last year’s Islamist militant attacks in Paris in November beyond 26 July.

The president said in his traditional Bastille Day interview that it would not make sense for the emergency to be extended indefinitely, reports the BBC.

That would mean the rule of law “no longer applied”, Hollande said.

France has twice extended the state of emergency since it was first imposed.

The last extension was granted to cover the Euro 2016 soccer tournament and the end of the Tour de France cycling race.

The state of emergency was enforced after 13 November, when 130 people died in co-ordinated gun and bomb attacks on a concert hall, restaurants and the Stade de France, where an international football match was taking place.

Earlier in the year, in January, an attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the siege of a Jewish supermarket in Paris had resulted in the deaths of 17 people.

A recent commission found that the state of emergency was only having a “limited impact” on improving security.

It questioned the deployment of between 6,000 and 7,000 soldiers to protect schools, synagogues, department stores and other sensitive sites.

BDST: 0142 HRS, JUL 15, 2016
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