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.

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 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.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police previously said that it had arrested more than 2,100 people over charges of violence since last Saturday.

According to the BNP, those detained include its top official in Bangladesh, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, and his number two Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.

On Sunday the country’s Rapid Action Battalion, arrested BNP vice president Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, a former home minister and air force chief.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023