DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a sweeping and violent crackdown on opposition parties to “eliminate competition” ahead of general elections, including arresting almost 10,000 activists, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

As well as the thousands arres­ted, many from the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a staggering number also face charges. Acc­ording to the BNP, about half of its five million members “face politi­cally motivated prosecution”, HRW said.

“The arrests, they are not leaving anyone behind, from senior level to the ground level,” one activist told HRW. Prisons are now at more than double their capacity, the rights group said.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people holds a general election on Jan 7, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina eyeing her fourth consecutive term in power. The BNP and other parties have held mass protests calling on Hasina to quit power and let a neutral government run the polls, demands the government has said are unconstitutional.

BNP claims 16,625 members have been arrested since October

“Bangladesh authorities are carrying out mass arrests of political opposition in a clear attempt to quash the opposition and eliminate competition ahead of the general elections”, HRW said.

The BNP on Sunday said at least 16,625 members had been arrested since October. They include most of its leadership, most notably the BNP’s de facto chief Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

“Bangladesh has not seen such a massive crackdown on the opposition in the country’s history,” BNP spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman said. “A blanket of fear has spread all over the country”.

Prosecutors and lawyers said in the past two weeks at least 526 BNP officials and activists were convicted and sentenced, mostly in absentia, over what the party said were “trumped up” charges. Wahid­uz­zaman said that thousands of BNP members were now in hiding. Party officials said that when the police raided a house looking for them, they had beaten or arrested family members in their place.

“Fearing arrest and torture, they’ve fled their homes,” he said. “Many are living on grain fields under open sky.” A. R. Khan Liton, a BNP student leader in the southern coastal district of Satkhira, said he and other party members were terrified.

“Almost every BNP activist I know has fled their homes,” Liton said.“They don’t spend more than two nights in one place. Some are spending the night in paddy or sugarcane fields.”

New York-based HRW, who called it a “violent autocratic crackdown”, said at least 16 people have been killed since protests escalated in October, including two police officers. More than 5,500 people have been wounded.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2023