More than 500 arrested in Bangladesh capital over violence: police

DHAKA: More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested over days of clashes in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka sparked by protests against job quotas, police said Monday.

“At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.

“They include some BNP leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

The detainees included the BNP’s third-most senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and party spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, he said.

A former national football captain turned senior BNP figure, Aminul Huq, was also held, he added.

Mia Golam Parwar, the general secretary of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was also arrested, Hossain said.

He said at least three policemen had been killed during the unrest in the capital and about 1,000 injured, at least 60 of them critically.

BNP spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman told AFP that nationwide, “several hundred BNP leaders and activists were arrested in the past few days”.