MONITORING DESK
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police on Tuesday said that they had arrested the country’s largest political party, Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief, days after the party announced to join the protests of the main opposition to oust setting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Officers of Bangladesh’s counter-terrorism department arrested Jamaat-e-Islami political party emir Shafiqur Rahman in Dhaka, Faruq Ahmed, the metropolitan police spokesman said.
A spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami condemned the party chief’s arrest and said it was intended to disturb the opposition parties’ anti-government campaign”.
Jamaat’s leadership criticizes PM Sheikh Hasina
Jamaat’s publicity secretary Matiur Rahman Akand said the arrest is just another episode of the party’s unjust oppression continuing against the party for the last 15 years.
Jamaat was a major ally of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for years, and their coalition ruled Bangladesh between 2001-2006 for five years.
However, after 2009 when Sheikh Hasina came to power in Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami’s entire leadership was arrested, charged, and tried for war crimes dating back to the country’s independence in 1971.
Jamaat’s five top leaders were executed between 2013 and 2016 after they were declared guilty by a war crimes court in Dhaka.
The fresh arrest of Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief came days after two of the Bangladesh National Party’s leaders were arrested on charges of inciting violence on Saturday’s eve of a giant anti-government rally.
The party has demanded that Sheikh Hasina step down and let a caretaker government conduct a fair, free, transparent election in the country.
Jamaat-e-Islami and various centrist and left-leaning parties have supported the Bangladesh National Party’s demands. They also announced holding joint protests with the opposition party.
