DHAKA, 21 April 2004 — Police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) have cracked down on the activists of Awami League (AL) and workers of Proshika, a non-government development organization, arresting over 2,000 of them to foil an opposition program to lay siege to Hawa Bhaban, the political office of the chairperson of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Members of the Rapid Action Battalion, Detective Branch, Special Branch and Armed Police Battalion swung into action at different entry points of Dhaka city.
They picked up suspected people from Kamalapur railway station, Tejgaon railway station, Gabtoli, Mohakhali, Sayedabad and Gulistan bus terminals and Sadarghat launch terminal since early yesterday.
A joint team posted near the Proshika office at Mirpur arrested a number of women besides men from nearby areas.
Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ashraful Huda, however, refused to call it a special drive.
“It is nothing new. We are conducting routine raids to keep law and order under control,” he said. “Most of the guys were picked up from the bus, rail and train stations following intelligence reports that people from different districts are being massed in the city, some equipped with arms and ammunition and explosives,” a police official said.
Sources said law-enforcing agency members laid ambush at all bus, rail and launch terminals, beginning yesterday afternoon, and checked the passengers coming to the capital from different directions.
“We primarily picked up those who do not want to say why they came here...some of them told police that they were asked by a non-governmental organization to come to the capital,” said a police officer.
