DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladeshi police said yesterday more than 1,300 people have been arrested in a sweeping crackdown dubbed ‘Operation Devil Hunt’, targeting gangs allegedly connected to the ousted regime of Sheikh Hasina.
Head Jahangir Alam Chowdhury of the Interior Ministry in the interim government that took over after Hasina was ousted in the August 2024 student-led revolution, has vowed the operations will continue “until we uproot the devils”. Police spokesman Inamul Haque Sagar said that operations continue, but from its launch on Saturday “1,308 people were arrested across the country”.
The security operations come after widespread unrest earlier this month.
On February 5, six months to the day since Hasina fled as crowds stormed her palace in Dhaka, protesters smashed buildings connected to her family using excavators.
Protests were triggered in response to reports that 77-year-old Hasina – who has defied an arrest warrant to face trial crimes against humanity – would appear in a Facebook broadcast from exile in neighbouring India.
Buildings destroyed included the museum and former home of Hasina’s late father, Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, sparking condemnation from a group of civil rights activists.
