Police detain 900 BNP, Jamaat men from 21 districts

The police have detained around 900 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami from 21 districts during the last 24 hours until Sunday noon. 

They were allegedly involved in violence, vandalism and sabotage activities during the grand rally of BNP in Dhaka on Saturday and dawn-to-dusk hartal across the country on Sunday. 

At least 17 BNP men, including city unit convener Samsujjaman Samu, member secretary Mahfuz-un-Nabi, and district unit joint convener Fazle Rabbi, have been detained from the party’s district office premises. 

Abu Maruf Hossain, deputy commissioner of Rangpur Metropolitan Police (RMP), said they apprehended the BNP men in the morning when they were preparing to hold demonstrations and carry out sabotage activities.

The police detained 38 loyalists of BNP and Jamaat from the district. Among the detainees is district BNP president Mofajjal Hossain Dulal.

Shah Iftekhar Ahmed, superintendent of the district police, said they detained Dulal from the Collectorate School area around 9:30 am on Sunday. 

Some 27 of the other detentions have been reported from Birampur, Nawabganj, Ghoraghat, and Hakimpur upazilas. 

Subrata Kumer Sarker, officer-in-charge of Birampur Police Station, said they nabbed 11 BNP activists and a Jamaat member from different areas of the Birampur town. They have been shown arrested in sabotage cases and will be sent to jail through a court. 

At least 41 activists of BNP and Jamaat have been detained from different upazilas of Pirojpur. According to sources, 20 detentions have been reported from Sadar upazila, while four from Nazirpur, four from Indurkani, five from Nesarabad, two from Kawkhali, one from Bhandaria, and five reported from Mathbaria upazila. 

Sheikh Mustafizur Rahman, additional superintendent of district police, said the detainees were involved in sabotage activities, while district BNP leader Sardar Kamruzzaman alleged the police are implicating their activists in previous false cases.

The police held a total of 84 BNP men from different upazilas last night. Mustafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of district police’s Special Branch (SB), confirmed their detentions. 

However, there was no untoward incident in the district during hartal on Sunday. 

A total of 127 leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies have been detained on Saturday night, on allegation of plotting sabotage during the hartal. Later, they were shown arrested. 

Sanatan Chakrabarty, additional superintendent of district police, said they nabbed 57 BNP and Jamaat men from the district while holding meetings to carry out sabotage activities during the hartal on Sunday.

Jamirul Islam, spokesperson of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), confirmed the detention of 70 BNP men from the metropolitan area in the night. 

The police held three leaders and activists of BNP and Jamaat from Bogura, 70 from Brahmanbaria, five from Gaibandha, seven from Narayanganj, 17 from Satkhira, 38 from Chuadanga, 13 from Chandpur, 26 from Jhenaidah, 46 from Joypurhat, six from Sunamganj, 68 from Jamalpur, 147 from Sirajganj, 10 from Barguna, 15 from Jhalakathi, 114 BNP and Jamaat men from Naogaon. 

All the detentions have been confirmed by the police administrations of the respective districts.