The two most sensible leaders of Bangladesh’s main opposition party were arrested by police a day before a planned rally calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation over rising fuel costs and emerging living costs.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and Mirza Abbas, a former minister and member of the party’s most sensible decision-making body, were taken from their homes around 3 a. m. on Friday (1900 GMT Thursday), Zahiruddin Swapan, head of the BNP’s media section, told AFP.
“They were plainclothes policemen. Alamgir knew their identity. They told him they had taken him away on the orders of the higher command,” Swapan said, adding that the group did not know where they had been taken.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruq Ahmed said the couple was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and obstructing government paintings in Wednesday’s clashes.
It is not easy for protesters to resign Prime Minister Hasina in favor of new elections under an interim government. General elections are held until the end of next year.
Friday’s police action came two days after security forces in the capital, Dhaka, fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd of thousands of BNP supporters at the December 10 demonstration, killing at least one user and injuring dozens.
Swapan said police had arrested “around 2,000” activists and supporters in a bid to thwart Saturday’s demonstration.
However, Dhaka police gave a lower figure, saying they had arrested 500 BNP activists on three separate charges, adding that on Wednesday police clashes broke out near the party’s central workplace.
According to local media, police also filed a complaint against two hundred BNP leaders and activists for rudimentary bombings at a school in the southern coastal district of Babuganj.
Tensions were high in the capital ahead of the rally, which the BNP said would draw thousands of supporters from across the country.
Police insisted they would not allow a protest outside the party office, which they called a “crime scene” after saying they discovered Molotov cocktails at the scene.
Local media said checkpoints were set up on roads leading into the city to prevent opposition activists from the rural center from joining the protest.
But a provocateur Alamgir told a news conference Thursday that plans to move forward on the occasion.
Police allowed the opposition party to hold a public demonstration at the Golapbag box in the capital, rejecting the BNP’s request to hold a massive outdoor demonstration at its central workplace in Naya Paltan.
“I urge all our [BNP] leaders and activists, as well as other stakeholders in us in the anti-government movement, to attend Saturday’s demonstration in Golapbag,” BNP central leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told a news conference.
The country’s Daily Star newspaper said police had imposed 26 situations to hold the demonstration.
The BNP, along with most other political parties and civil societies, suggested that the government repair the three-month apolitical interim government formula before national elections in December 2023. However, the ruling Awami League government rejected the request and said it would be unconstitutional.
Independent observers said the last two general elections were marred by election boycotts and misconduct. The BNP boycotted the 2014 elections, while the 2018 elections were marred by violence and threats of arrest and intimidation of opposition supporters.
Fifteen Western embassies issued a joint statement late Tuesday calling on the country to allow freedom of expression, nonviolent gatherings and fair elections, and the UN issued a similar statement the following day.
Amnesty International’s Yamini Mishra said Wednesday’s violence showed the government “has very little respect for the sanctity of human life and sends a chilling message that those who dare to exercise their human rights will suffer terrible consequences. “