Police on arrest spree in Bangladesh after violent student protests

Bangladesh authorities launched a countrywide arrest drive after dozens of cases were filed on charges of acts of sabotage after violent student protests that left at least 157 killed in the past eight days across the country, reported New Age, a leading English language daily published from Dhaka.

Political leaders and activists, service holders, drivers, and even day labourers were not spared as police arrested about 2,500 people, including over a thousand in the capital Dhaka, in the past three days, officials said.

A 16-year-old physically-challenged boy named Md Ashik of north Nakhalpara in Tejgaon was among 483 arrested people, who were produced before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court by police.

Two courts sent 466 suspected accused to Jail and remanded 17 others in police custody for three days for interrogation in the sabotage cases.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh remained detached from other parts of the globe as the authorities snapped telephone and internet services for the last one week in response to the unrest sparked by ongoing protests demanding reforms to the quota system in government jobs.

The authority, however, reopened internet service in a limited scale on Tuesday night.

Earlier, the government on Saturday imposed curfew and deployed military to bring the situation under control.