Bangladesh police arrest 2,000 more in crackdown on militants
Police in Bangladesh have arrested more than 2,000 more people, including militants, as part of a crackdown on suspects in a series of deadly attacks in the country.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Shahidur Rahman said on Sunday that 2,132 people were held on the second day of the nationwide police operations.
Some 48 of those arrested were suspected militants from the banned group of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), he added.
The Bangladeshi government blames the JMB for a spate of gruesome murders in recent months. The government rejects claims of responsibility by the Daesh Takfiri group and a branch of al-Qaeda, saying international terror groups have no presence in the country.
Some 3,000 other suspects were detained on Saturday.
Bangladesh has come under international pressure to end the ongoing attacks that have killed 50 people, including members of religious minorities and liberal activists, over the past three years.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has pledged that her administration will make sure that “each and every killer” is arrested. Hasina leads a secular government in Bangladesh. About 90 percent of the population of 160 million in the country is Muslim.
Hasina has accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami of organizing the attacks to destabilize the country.
Opposition parties have accused the government of using the crackdown to suppress political dissent, saying that many of those arrested were ordinary and innocent people.
Police have also seized 1,000 motorbikes in addition to the arrests. This is because motorbikes were used in many of the attacks. Motorcyclists have recently been banned from carrying more than one passenger.
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