Bangladesh: Awami League leaders arrested ahead of Bangabandhu anniversary

Dhaka, Aug 14 In an ongoing crackdown on the Bangladesh's Awami League party under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim regime, several party leaders were arrested by the Dhaka police on suspicion of planning anti-government events on August 15 which marks the 50th death anniversary of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The police also took into custody Aminur Rahman Selim, the Assistant Personal Secretary (APS) to former Health and Family Welfare Minister in the Awami League government Zahid Maleque, in connection with a case over an alleged attack on students and the public in Manikganj district, the local media reported on Thursday.

Confirming the development, Manikganj Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) S M Aman Ullah said that eight people, including Selim, the former MP from Manikganj-3 constituency, were arrested in raids carried out at various places on Wednesday.

Among the other arrested, Bangladesh’s leading Bengali daily Jugantor reported, were Awami League leaders Mohammad Ali Chowdhury, Nurul Islam Nuru, Mosharraf Hossain, Mohammad Raju, Imran Mahmud Iran, Nizam Bepari and Azim Mia.

According to OC Aman Ullah, they had been planning to carry out various anti-government programmes on August 15. He added that all of them were also accused in cases linked to alleged attacks on student protestors during last year’s July demonstration.

Reports suggest that the accused will be presented before the court on Thursday, once the legal procedures are completed.

Meanwhile, the Awami League on Thursday slammed the Yunus-led interim government for not commemorating the 50th death anniversary of Bangabandhu on Friday and for warning people against organising any event.

The party had announced that it would observe August 15 as National Mourning Day, commemorating the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and several members of his family.

It said that the "fascist" Yunus regime is stripping the people of their rights and freedom of speech by not allowing them to commemorate the death anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

"15 August is National Mourning Day - a day of grief, heavy with the most heinous and brutal assassination in the history of human civilisation. On this day in 1975, the reactionary killers, enemies of humanity, assassinated Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - the great leader of Bangladesh's liberation movement, the champion of the oppressed and deprived people of the world, the cherished figure of Bengalis for a thousand years, the eternal source of inspiration for the nation, the architect of an independent Bangladesh, and the Greatest Bengali of all time - along with most members of his family," read a statement issued by the Awami League.

The Awami League called upon its allies, fraternal organisations, and various socio-cultural and political groups, both in the country and abroad, to observe National Mourning Day on Friday with due "dignity, respect, and love, in a solemn and grief-stricken atmosphere".

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