Bangladesh arrests 8,000 opposition activists: report

DHAKA: Bangladesh police have arrested nearly 8,000 opposition figures in a nationwide crackdown since officers broke up a major rally in the capital a week ago, a report said on Sunday.

The sweeping wave of detentions comes ahead of a general election due in January.

The country’s major opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and its allies have been staging giant rallies in recent months demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down and allow a neutral government to supervise the vote.

Hasina has overseen impressive growth in her 15 years of power, but she has been accused of ruling the South Asian nation with an iron fist. The United States has imposed sanctions on some of its most senior police figures for widespread human rights violations.

More than 100,000 opposition supporters joined a “grand rally” in central Dhaka last Saturday, when a policeman was killed in clashes.

Since then police have launched a widespread crackdown on the BNP, arresting thousands of activists and accusing at least 162 of its top leaders of murdering the officer.

The country’s best-read and most respected newspaper Prothom Alo reported on Sunday that at least 7,835 people had been held, based on reports from its correspondents across the country. National police spokesman Abir Siddique Shuvra, could not give an exact number of detentions, but said those arrested faced criminal cases and warrants.“It is impossible to give an exact figure. Police are doing our regular work,” he said.