Bangladesh opposition party leaders arrested ahead of controversial election News
Bangladesh opposition party leaders arrested ahead of controversial election
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[JURIST] Bangladesh authorities on Saturday arrested senior leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) [party website], Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia. The arrests were made shortly after BNP announced a new 72-hour strike [Al Jazeera report], scheduled to begin Sunday. Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh are expected [UN News Centre report] to be held between now and the end of January and have inspired a number of violent protests and strikes. In October UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] called for restraint and respect for the rule of law [JURIST report], urging “all parties to ensure an environment conducive to credible and peaceful elections.”

Protests in Bangladesh have been escalating in large part due to increased brutality by the security forces responding to the violence. Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report in August documenting the brutality [JURIST report], as a result of which more than 150 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured since February. A large portion of the current protests involve the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami [organization website] and residual anger over the nation’s recent war crimes trials. HRW issued [JURIST report] an appeal to the group in March to end violent protests and clashes between the group’s supporters and Bangladeshi police, which resulted in at least 46 deaths [BBC report] that month alone. Appeals to members of Jamaat-e-Islaami to respect the rule of law and engage in peaceful exchange have been made particularly difficult by an August ruling by a Bangladeshi high court declaring the organization an illegal political party [JURIST report]. Predictably, there has been an increase in violent protests since the decision rather than an increase in constructive dialogue.