Overnight 500 people have been arrested following violent clashes with police during protests in Bangladesh. Among those detained are key members of the opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain, who spoke to AFP.
Arrest of Key Political Figures
The clashes led to the detention of prominent political figures, including Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, the BNP’s third-most senior leader, and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, the party’s spokesman. Aminul Huq, a former national football captain who has become a senior BNP figure, was also among those arrested.
BNP spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman confirmed to AFP that “several hundred BNP leaders and activists were arrested in the past few days” across the country.
Mia Golam Parwar, the general secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, was also arrested, as reported by Faruk Hossain.
