Law enforcement agencies have arrested more than 9,000 people from different parts of the country, including the capital city, in the past 11 days, following widespread protests, clashes, vandalism, and arson centering the quota reform movement.
As of Saturday, the number of arrests reached 9,121, according to data collected by Prothom Alo from police sources in 56 metropolitan areas and districts. The number was more than 6,500 until Friday.
Beginning on 1 July, the protests flared up across the country after violent clashes on the Dhaka University campus on 15 July. There were incidents of attacks, clashes, violences, vandalism, arson and deaths in the following days. The incidents followed lawsuits all over the country, while more cases are still being filed.
Law enforcement agencies turned to the opposition parties and are using fabricated cases to kill and arrest the leaders, alleges the BNP
A large number of the arrestees are leaders and activists of the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and their affiliated organisations, as well as top leaders of various parties allied with the BNP. Some of them have been mentioned to be arrested in old cases, while the others in new ones.
In a statement on Saturday, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at least 35 central leaders of his party, in addition to scores of leaders and activists, have been arrested so far.
He accused the government of killing and assaulting the students during the quota reform protests, and said law enforcement agencies now turned to the opposition parties and are using fabricated cases to kill and arrest the opposition leaders.
The law enforcement agencies are making their leaders and activists crippled by firings even before presenting them before the court, and then carrying out a fresh spell of torture taking them on remand through the judiciary, he alleged.
Most incidents of clashes and arson took place in Dhaka and its suburbs. The entire capital city, including Uttara, Jatrabari, Mohakhali, Badda, Rampura, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, and Azimpur areas, turned into battlefields during the clashes.
On the following days, a large number of the arrests were made in Dhaka and its surrounding areas. The police and its elite force, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), have been carrying out combing operations and block raids across the capital city since the night of 21 July. They also prepared a list of the people involved in violence, analysing video footage and stills.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) reported on Saturday that a total of 207 cases have been registered with various police stations in the capital and they arrested 2,536 people in total, with 252 arrests on Saturday alone.
Meanwhile, the RAB reported a total arrests of 290 people – 71 in Dhaka and 219 in districts.
Apart from Dhaka, arrests have been reported from Savar, Dhamrai, Ashulia, Keraniganj, Nawabganj, and Dohar.
According to Dhaka district police, some four fresh cases were filed in the district on Saturday, and it took the number of total cases across the district to 24. They have arrested some 200 people in connection with the cases.
In Narayanganj, 51 people were arrested from Friday night to Saturday afternoon, with a total of 487 arrests reported in 24 cases, while in Gazipur, 37 cases have led to 396 arrests.
Meanwhile, a new case was filed in the Akbar Shah police station in Chattogram on Saturday, with the number of cases reaching 30 in the city and district. The police have so far arrested 884 people over the cases.
In Rangpur, a total of 185 people have been arrested in 12 cases, while Rajshahi has seen 345 arrests in 17 cases, and Bogura has reported 296 arrests in 15 cases.