Nearly 500 people, most of them Opposition activists, have been arrested from different parts of the country during the ongoing drive by the joint forces in the past 24 hours on charges of vandalism and acts of sabotage. The joint forces, comprising the police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB), are conducting the massive crackdown for also arresting listed criminals to maintain law and order ahead of the January 5 general election.
The drive by the joint forces has also coincided with the Opposition’s March to Dhaka for Democracy programme, scheduled on December 29.
The joint forces are also conducting checks at different bus stations, rail stations and launch terminals and major entry points to the capital to prevent criminals and saboteurs from entering the city for the Opposition programme.
Checks were also been conducted in this connection on the western part of Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge on vehicles coming from the northern districts.
Hotels, boarding houses and messes in the city are also being checked for criminals. Besides, Army troops were seen conducting checks of vehicles in different parts of the city.
Leaders of Opposition parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), criticised the government for carrying out the crackdown. They said it was aimed at foiling Sunday’s March to Dhaka for Democracy.
Police sources denied the allegation, saying that the drive is being conducted to improve the law and order ahead of the election, which
is going to be held without the participation of the Opposition parties.
Inspector general of police (IGP) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker told reporters that if any innocent person is arrested, he/she would be released after scrutiny. “Measures will be taken against the law enforcers concerned if any allegation of harassment is found against them,” he said, while talking to reporters at Rajarbagh Police Line after paying his respects to the departed soul of police constable Siddhartha Chandra Sarker, who was killed in a bomb attack by Jamaat-Shibir activists in Rajshahi on Friday.
The IGP said the joint force’s drive is being conducted to arrest criminals.
Of the arrested persons, 129 listed criminals were arrested from Mirpur area in Dhaka alone. The joint forces arrested them in an overnight drive on Friday from different areas in Mirpur.
The joint forces launched the drives at Mirpur, Darus Salam, Rupnagar, Kafrul and Pallabi areas from Thursday midnight to Friday morning and arrested them.
The actual number of arrests in the city has not been fully disclosed by the police. They said the figures would be available after the arrested people are scrutinised.
Md Abu Yusuf, assistant commissioner (media), told The Independent that over 100 people were arrested from different parts of the city on Friday. Assistant commissioner (Pallabi zone) Md Kamal told reporters that 51 were arrested from Pallabi area alone.
The joint forces launched drives in the city from Wednesday night to arrest listed criminals and those involved in subversive activists.
Our Rajshahi bureau reports that the police and members of law enforcement agencies rounded up 47 persons from areas under four police stations of Rajshahi during the last 18 hours in connection with the murder of police constable Siddhartha.
Earlier, on Thursday night, police of Boalia police station filed a case accusing 400 people. The names of 85 persons, including BNP central committee member, mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation Mosaddeque Hossain Bulbul, former mayor and central BNP joint secretary general Mijanur Rahman Minu, BNP special secretary Advocate Nadim Mostafa and general secretary of the BNP’s city unit, Shefiqul Haque Mlon, were mentioned.
In Chittagong, the combined forces and police in separate drives arrested 12 people, including a listed terror, from different places of Sitakunda, Satkania and Lohagara upazilas in the early hours on Friday. Iftekher Hasan, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sitakunda police station, said after conducting a raid at different places in Sayedpur union, the combined forces arrested four persons on charges of being involved in violence on the highway. “Among the arrestees, there is a listed terror, while others are activists of Jamaat-Shibir,” he said, adding that those arrested are accused in different cases filed in connection with the incidents of violence on the highway.
Khaled Hosen, OC of Satkania police station, who conducted an overnight drive at different parts of the upazila, said the police arrested five Jamaat-Shibir activists on charges of being involved in the violence on Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway recently.
Mohammad Shahjahan, OC of Lohagara police station, said the police arrested three persons from the upazila in the early hours. “The arrested are accused in different cases filed in connection with subversive activities on the highway,” OC Shahjahan added.
In Satkhira, police arrested three Jamaat-Shibir activists from Murarikati village under Kolaroa upazila in Satkhira. They are accused in a case of vandalism and of acts of sabotage.
The arrested persons are identified as Moshiar Mistri, 45, Azizul Islam, 40 and Maruf Hossain, 25.
Besides, the joint forces arrested 55 people from Bogra, 35 in Comilla, 33 from Nilphamari, 26 from Gazipur, 17 from Chandpur, 14 from Thakurgaon, 12 each from Brahmanbaria and Chapainawabganj, 10 from Jenaidah, nine from Barisal, eight each from Dinajpur and Natore, seven from Rangpur, six from Lalmonirhat, five from Noakhali, four from Luxmipur, three from Satkhira and two from Panchagarh district.
-With The Independent input
