Dhaka, Sep 28 (IANS): As the crackdown on political opponents escalates in Bangladesh, a Dhaka court sent 27 people to jail after police arrested them from the central office of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), local media reported.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jashita Islam passed the order on Sunday after police produced them before the court and sought to keep them in custody.
The prosecution alleged that the detainees created an “unstable and disorderly environment” inside the JaSaD office while chanting “Joy Bangla”, Bangladeshi media outlet bdnews24 reported.
On Saturday, police detained hundreds of people during a sweeping raid on the JaSaD headquarters in Dhaka’s Gulistan, alleging that Awami League leaders and activists had gathered there for a “secret meeting”, a claim rejected by JaSaD.
The development reportedly came after BNP and its youth wing Jubo Dal activists surrounded the JaSaD headquarters before entering the office, alleging the presence of Awami League members at a clandestine gathering.
Police subsequently stormed the building and began taking people into custody, turning what JaSaD described as a scheduled representatives’ meeting into a major law-enforcement operation in the capital,Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune reported.
Following the incident, Bangladesh’s Awami League strongly condemned the “disgraceful attack, vandalism, occupation” of the central office of JaSaD and indiscriminate mass arrests of leaders present at the party’s representative meeting.
Expressing grave concern, the Awami League alleged that the attack was carried out in broad daylight in a “fascist manner” by BNP and Jubo Dal activists under the protection of the police.
“This attack is a warning sign for Bangladesh. We have repeatedly said that, despite operating under the banner of democracy, the BNP is fundamentally an anti-democratic force, and this party, born in the cantonment, has never believed in the constitutional and democratic rights of the people. No matter how much it tries to conceal it, its fascist character periodically reveals itself,” the party stated.
“Even journalists were not spared from this attack and arrests. Through this attack, occupation, and arrests, the true nature of the BNP has once again been exposed before the people,” it added.
The Awami League stated that since the political changeover of August 5, 2024, a blueprint has been implemented to eliminate “secular and progressive democratic political forces” in Bangladesh.
Highlighting the incidents of vandalism, arson, and occupation of offices of Awami League and other pro-Liberation War political parties across the country, the party said such a prevailing climate poses an extreme threat to the political culture of an independent and democratic country and stands in the way of multiparty politics.
“Yet the so-called political party currently in power through a rigged election loudly presents itself as the champion of multiparty democracy. In reality, its version of multiparty democracy means rehabilitating anti-independence and reactionary forces in politics—something that is now clear to the people of the country,” it noted.
