Bangladesh arrests more opposition leaders as PM Sheikh Hasina rejects dialogue
- Former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury is among those taken into custody overnight
- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled any dialogue with the opposition and also accused her adversary’s son of hiring killers to murder her
Bangladesh’s main opposition party said on Friday that three more of its senior leaders had been arrested, after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ruled out talks with adversaries demanding her resignation.
Hasina has been accused of ruling the South Asian nation with an iron fist and the United States has sanctioned some of its most senior police figures for widespread human rights violations.
The past year has seen a series of huge rallies against her administration across the country by protesters demanding a neutral caretaker government preside over elections slated for January.
Hundreds of senior cadres and supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been arrested, with former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury among those taken into custody overnight.
“Police arrested my dad from my aunt’s home in Gulshan at around midnight,” said Chowdhury’s son Israfil Khosru.
The party also confirmed the arrests of BNP spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan and Aminul Huq, a former national football captain and a Dhaka unit chief of the party.
The latest arrests come just days after police detained Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, one of the BNP’s highest-ranked leaders.
Alamgir was charged with the murder of a police officer who was killed during clashes between security forces and opposition activists on Saturday.