The police have been arresting a huge number of people which they think is a continued clampdown on the Awami League activists. They have been interrogating Dhaka-bound passengers at bus and launch terminals, and railway stations. They have also been picking up ordinary people. The number of the detained in the past four days after Tuesday, a day before the main opposition party’s programme of laying siege to Hawa Bhaban, stood more than 7,000 till Friday evening.A human right activist Sigma Huda has termed these arrests as illegal.
The police rounded up over 2,000 people only on Friday and put them in capacity-packed police custody.Most of the people, picked up mainly from bus and launch terminals and Kamalapur station, have been arrested without any charge. The police took them in custody and showed them arrested under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Act. A huge number of relatives and friends thronged in front of the magistrate's court to get them bailed out.