DHAKA // Bangladesh police have arrested more than 3,000 people in a sweeping nationwide crackdown following a spate of gruesome murders. Those detained include 37 suspected extremists and hundreds of potential criminals who previously had warrants out against them. The announcement on Saturday came as the prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed vowed to catch “each every killer.”
However, opposition politicians say the crackdown is merely an excuse to arrest activists and suppress political dissent.
Bangladesh has been hit by a surge in brutal killings with religious minorities, secular thinkers and liberal activists as the main targets.
Among the 3,155 people arrested over 24 hours were 37 extremists, of whom 27 are members of the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), according to deputy police inspector general AKM Shahidur Rahman. The Bangladeshi government blames the JMB for the murders and rejects claims from ISIL and a south Asian branch of Al Qaeda that they are in fact responsible.
“It may take time but God willing we will be able to bring them under control,” said the prime minister at a meeting of her Awami League party, on Saturday. “Where will the criminals hide? Each and every killer will be brought to book as we did after the 2015 mayhem,” she added, referring to a transport blockade last year organised by opposition parties. Ms Hasina has accused the opposition Bangladesh Naionalist Party (BNP) and the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami of orchestrating the attacks after the blockade failed to topple her government.
Police detained some 350 people in the country’s second-largest city of Chittagong and its surrounding area, including a suspect in the murder of Mahmuda Akter, the wife of a senior anti-terrorist officer who had led several high-profile operations against the JMB. She was stabbed and shot dead as she walked with her son to a school bus stop a week ago. Among others murdered in recent weeks are an elderly Hindu priest, a Christian grocer and a liberal academic.
However, Bangladesh opposition parties immediately accused the police of using the crackdown as an excuse to round up opponents of the ruling regime. “Hundreds of opposition activists have been arrested in the police drive,” said Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
“In the name of the crackdown against Islamist militants, many ordinary and innocent people are being detained.”
As well as the arrests, police said they had seized nearly 1,000 motorcycles across the country. Motorbikes have been used in many of the attacks, prompting a ban on motorcyclists carrying more than one passenger.
* Agence France-Presse