Bangladesh's 'Devil Hunt' Phase 2: Crackdown Amid Election Violence and Hadi Shooting

Addressing journalists in Dhaka, the interim government’s Home Affairs Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury announced the decision following a core committee meeting on the law and order situation. The meeting was held a day after the gun attack on Sharif Osman Hadi, spokesperson of a radical activist platform, Inqilab Mancha.

Jahangir Alam added that law enforcement agencies have been instructed to arrest those involved in the shooting of Hadi.

"We hope to bring the perpetrators to justice within a very short time. No one involved in this attack will be spared," Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted the Home Advisor as saying.

Hadi, a potential independent candidate for Dhaka-8 constituency in the upcoming February elections, was shot in the head in full public view in the capital's Bijoynagar. He remains in a critical condition -- on life support -- at a Dhaka hospital.

'Operation Devil Hunt' was first launched throughout the country earlier this year following an incident on February 7 when 15-16 students were attacked at the home of former Liberation War Affairs Minister A K M Mozammel Haque.

Citing human rights organisation Mandhaka Sanskriti Foundation (MSF), the country's leading Bengali daily Prothom Alo, reported that 11,313 people were arrested in Operation Devil Hunt across Bangladesh from February 8 to February 28. The report noted that most of the arrested people were members of the previous Awami League government, highlighting the intensifying crackdown on the party.

Bangladesh has witnessed an alarming rise in violence and growing political vendetta under the Yunus-led interim government.

Last month, Bangladesh’s Awami League party accused the Yunus government of conspiring to push the people of the country towards an uncertain future, warning that a new form of "mob terrorism" has emerged as an organised "terror tactic".

Slamming the Yunus regime, the party stated that since the "illegal usurpers" seized power, incidents of murder, rape, theft, robbery, looting, and mugging have sharply increased across the country.

- IANS