Police arrest 2,500 a day in special drive

More than 2,000 people were being arrested every day as the police continued their ‘special drive’ across the country after the killings of two foreign nationals in Dhaka and Rangpur.
The fresh round of drive created panic among the leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami at grassroots as police allegedly targeted the opposition people.
The drive intensified after the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on October 4 alleged that the BNP and the Jamaat had a hand in the killings of the two foreigners.
The BNP and the Jamaat alleged that law enforcers raided the houses of their leaders and activists in different districts and arresting them.
BNP leaders said that over 200 leaders and activists of the party were arrested in a week and several hundred others were implicated afresh in different cases.
The police headquarters officials said 2,503 people were arrested between 8:00am on Wednesday and 8:00am on Thursday at the 630 police stations in the country.
‘The special drive continues…We want to ensure safety of all foreign nationals staying in the country,’ said assistant inspector general of police (media and public relations) Nazrul Islam.
He declined to provide the number of people arrested in the past weeks but said, ‘Between 2,000 and 2,700 people were not getting arrested usually in the police stations across the country.’
The police spokesperson ruled out the allegation of mass arrest and said, ‘We are arresting people based on specific allegations or in reference to previous cases.’
Another official at the police headquarters, however, said that they usually arrested between 1,200 and 1,300 people a day.
The BNP alleged that the government had again started arresting its grassroots leaders and activists ahead of the reorganisation of the party.
In a recent statement, party spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon said, ‘We’re observing with grave concern that a fresh drive has been launched to arrest our leaders and activists in different districts ahead of BNP’s councils at different levels and party overhauling process.’
He said Jessore district BNP general secretary Saberul Haq Sabu, Kishoreganj BNP organising secretary Israil Mia and Swechchhasebak Dal general secretary Shamim Ahmed were arrested on Sunday night.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in a statement accused the government for ‘illegally’ arresting its leaders and activists across the country.
The fresh crackdown was launched following the killing of Japanese farmer Hoshi Kunio in Rangpur on October 3 and Italian international aid worker Cesare Tavella at diplomatic enclave at Gulshan in the capital on September 28.
On October 3, plainclothes men picked up Rangpur city BNP member Rashed-un-Nabi Khan Biplob, also brother of Dhaka city BNP member-secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Shohel, from his house.
Rashed was later remanded in custody for interrogation in connection with the murder of Hoshi.

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