Dhaka, Dec 18 (IANS) Bangladesh’s interim government Home Affairs Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has directed police to arrest members of the Awami League on sight, without verifying whether cases have been registered against them, local media reported.
He made the remarks on Wednesday afternoon in the Narayanganj district, amid a protest by leaders and workers of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, who surrounded him pressing seven demands.
“There is no need to see if there are cases against the Awami League's criminals. They must be brought under the law as soon as they are seen. Otherwise, action will be taken against the police,” Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune quoted the Home Advisor as saying.
This latest move comes against the backdrop of intensifying crackdown on Awami League leaders under the Muhammad Yunus led interim government.
Earlier this week, as the law and order situation deteriorated in Bangladesh, Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, the student wing of the National Citizen Party (NCP), blocked the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka, calling for the resignation of Home Affairs Advisor Chowdhury, local media reported.
The protestor accused the Home Advisor of failing to maintain law and order in the country and of not arresting the suspects behind the shooting of Sharif Osman Hadi, the spokesperson of a radical platform Inqilab Mancha.
"We demand the immediate arrest of the attackers who assaulted Hadi. We also demand the resignation of the Home Advisor as the law and order has deteriorated in the country," Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted Abu Bakar Majumdar, convenor of the NCP's student wing, as saying.
Hadi, a potential independent candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency in the upcoming February elections, was shot in the head in full public view in Bijoynagar on December 12.
He remains in a critical condition after being flown to Singapore on Monday for advanced medical treatment.
Last month, Awami League accused the Yunus-led interim government of turning the country into a “dumping ground of dead bodies”.
Slamming the Yunus regime, the party alleged that the indiscriminate killings of Awami League leaders and activists across the country were carried out under a pre-planned blueprint.
“Today, every corner of besieged Bangladesh echoes with the cries of those who have lost their loved ones. On the way to the market, at the edge of the fields, at the river estuaries, in the house yards, on the beds inside homes—dead bodies are scattered everywhere. Leaders and activists of the Awami League are subjected to unspeakable torture and persecution for speaking out against the planned conspiracies of Yunus and his bloodthirsty followers to destroy the country. They are even being killed indiscriminately,” read a statement issued by the Awami League.
--IANS
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