DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh police have arrested an additional 2,000 suspected criminals including Islamist militants in an ongoing crackdown on extremists following a spate of gruesome murders, an officer said Sunday, June 12.
More than 3,000 people, including suspected ordinary criminals with existing warrants against them, were arrested on Saturday, June 11, after police launched a controversial anti-militant drive across the Muslim-majority nation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed on Saturday to catch "each and every killer" as Bangladesh reels from a wave of murders of religious minorities and secular and liberal activists that have spiked in recent weeks.
Among those arrested in the latest sweep were 48 suspected militants, many of them members of banned group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), police said.
"We have arrested 2,132 people including 48 Islamist militants on the second day of the special drive," Deputy Inspector General of Police A.K.M Shahidur Rahman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
JMB is one of two local groups blamed for most of the recent killings. The government rejects claims of responsibility from the Islamic State (ISIS) group and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda, saying international jihadists have no presence in Bangladesh.
The arrests come as a part-time imam was detained in northwestern Pabna district over the latest killing, that of a Hindu ashram, or monastery, worker hacked to death on Friday.
"He is a suspect and is being questioned over the murder," local police chief Abu Quddus told AFP.
Bangladesh opposition parties have accused police of using the crackdown on militants to suppress political dissent, saying many of those arrested were "ordinary and innocent people". – Rappler.com