Over 8,500 arrested in Bangladesh crackdown

Over 8,500 people, including 119 suspected militants, have been arrested in Bangladesh, the police said on Monday as it intensified their nationwide crackdown on Islamists to halt a spate of deadly attacks on minorities and secular writers in the Muslim-majority nation. On the third day of the crackdown, 3,245 people were arrested until this morning. Of them, 34 were suspected militants, Dhaka police spokesman AKM Quamrul Ahsan said. Mr Ahsan told reporters that during the clampdown that began on Friday, “we have arrested 8,569 people and of them 119 are suspected militants.”

Meanwhile, Bangladesh on Monday said it did not need any foreign help to provide security to its religious minorities despite the recent wave of deadly attacks by Islamists targeting Hindus and other communities along with liberal activists in the country.

“The followers of minority religious faiths are being attacked along with other ordinary citizens as part of an orchestrated plot to embarrass the government but these incidents could in no way affect the interfaith harmony in Bangladesh,” information minister Hasanul Haq Inu said. He added, “We don’t need to seek assistance of any foreign country or government for the security of our minority communities the (Bangladesh) government by principle is secular and it is awake 24 hours”. Mr Inu heads the left-leaning party which is a partner of ruling Awami League-led coalition government of PM Sheikh Hasina. The minister’s comments came in response to a recent media report that said the Hindu community in Bangladesh had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention for their protection in the wake of the attacks.