The police have filed 11 cases against at least 700 members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami in Jashore within just five days.
They have already arrested a total of 77 BNP and Jamaat men in connection with the cases. Adding to the concern, there are a significant number of anonymous individuals among the accused.
The police claimed to have filed the cases on specific charges, but local BNP and Jamaat leaders dismissed the claims, instead describing the cases as fictitious. They alleged that the government is using the police force to file the cases in an effort to corner the opposition before the upcoming national polls.
Syed Saberul Haque, member secretary of BNP’s Jashore district unit, expressed his concern over the cases, saying the police are filing fictitious cases against BNP members who were previously trained as polling agents for the national polls in 2018. He sees no logical or legal grounds for the arrest of the BNP men.
However, the additional superintendent of Jashore police (crime), Belal Hossain, claimed that the lawsuits are being filed based on specific crimes. He denied any harassment by the police and said they are arresting only individuals with arrest warrants and those accused in regular cases.
According to BNP and police sources, the 11 cases were filed with the seven police stations in Jashore between 5 and 10 October, accusing 200 named individuals and 500 anonymous BNP and Jamaat members.
So far, the police have arrested 77 leaders and activists in connection with the cases. In the district, Kotwali, Benapole, Sharsha, Jhikargacha, Chougacha, and Bagharpara police stations registered two cases each, while the Abhaynagar police station saw one case.
In a case, the police picked up Waheduzzaman, general secretary of Gadkhali Union BNP in Jhikargacha, from his business firm in Fatehpur village but later claimed to have arrested him at a sabotage site in Maheshpara area. The distance between the two places is around five kilometers.
Similarly, the police picked up at least five BNP leaders from different spots in Jhikargacha upazila and later showed them arrested in a sabotage case.
On 8 October, sub-inspector Jiaur Rahman of Jhikargacha police station filed a case accusing 29 named and 70 to 80 anonymous BNP men under the Special Powers Act. Later, the police showed six BNP leaders, including Waheduzzaman, arrested in the case.
According to the case statement, the police went to a vicinity adjacent to Maheshpara Bazar in Jhikargacha at 8:40 pm on 7 October, based on information that an organised group, equipped with crude bombs and rods, was waiting to carry out sabotage activities and dethrone the democratically elected government.
The police managed to detain six people from the spot, while the others managed to flee.
Meanwhile, Sohel Parvez, son of Waheduzzaman, ruled out the case statement, saying two policemen, including sub-inspector Amrit Lal Das of Jhikargacha police station, forcefully took his father away in the morning on 7 October when he and his father were at their business firm.
Later, he was shown arrested in a sabotage case in the Maheshpara area. The other accused in the case are Abul Khayer, general secretary of Panisara Union BNP; Faijur Rahman, president of Shankarpur Union BNP; Abdul Haque, joint convener of upazila Jubo Dal; Anarul Islam and Yasin Ali, activists of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Murtaja Elahi, convener of Jhikargacha upazila BNP, said there were no sabotage activities in the upazila. He claimed that the accused were accompanying him in Jhenaidah during the time of the occurrence.
"Not only me, but none of the accused were near the spot (during the occurrence). The police arrested the accused from different spots but showed them as arrested at the occurrence site," he added.