Joint forces allegedly violently ransacked houses and arrested women relatives of some opposition activists as they conducted raids across the country to arrest the opposition leaders and activists on early Friday.
Joint forces comprising the police, Border Guard Bangladesh and Rapid Action Battalion raided houses of several opposition leaders across the country.
Family members of Dhaka city (north) unit Juba Dal president Mamun Hasan said that the joint forces raided their Mirpur house at the dead of night on Thursday.
Failing to find him, the joint forces vandalised the furniture, trashed all the mobile phones in the house and then moved to Mamun’s brother Mahbub Hasan’s house next door and carried out similar carnage, they alleged.
The joint forces picked up Mamun’s two teenager nieces and their mother, Mamun’s sister-in-law. On Friday morning, when Mamun’s sister went to Mirpur police station to serve food to them, the police also arrested her, family sources said.
The joint force conducted a raid at the house of Dhaka city Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint convener Bazlul Bashit’s house at Mirpur, ransacked the house and arrested his brother as they failed to arrest Bazlul, the family members alleged.
On Thursday night, the joint force also carried out a raid at the house of former ward commissioner Shamim Parvez at Kalyanpur and arrested his wife after ransacking the house, as Shamim had gone into hiding.
In Rajshahi, BNP office secretary Jewel Rana said that the police and RAB raided the house of city BNP member Shakil Ahmed and damaged his house including doors, windows and furniture as he was in hiding. The police also vandalised houses of former ward councillor Mizanur Rahman Monir and at least three other BNP leaders, he alleged.
The officer-in-charges of the respective police stations could not be reached for comment.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner for Mirpur zone Sakhawat Hossain, however, told New Age that they had ‘information that the arrested women might be involved in subversive activities.’
He also said that the women might face charges of subversive activities.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police speaking to the media on Friday claimed that the police were carrying out the raids based on specific information.
