Bangladesh arrests more than 1,300 as protests and reprisals widen
*Event date: 2025-02-10*
Bangladesh police said they arrested more than 1,300 people in a nationwide crackdown tied to unrest around supporters of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The operation came after a stretch of violence and retaliation that has kept the country politically unsettled since Hasina was forced from office in August of the previous year.
Police spokesman Inamul Haque Sagar said more than 1,308 people were arrested across the country. Interior Ministry head Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the operations would continue “until we uproot the devils,” showing how hard the response has become in tone as well as scope.
The reported arrests followed reports of mob violence over the weekend. DW said the unrest intensified after demonstrators destroyed the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and one of Bangladesh’s founding figures. That attack followed a speech Hasina planned to give supporters from exile in India. The episode shows how symbolic actions involving the former ruling family can still trigger new rounds of anger and confrontation.
The political split is no longer limited to pro- and anti-Hasina groups. Supporters of Hasina have tried to gather at buildings associated with her government but have been attacked by critics. Hours after the destruction of Mujibur Rahman’s house, members of the student-led movement that helped remove Hasina were attacked in Gazipur near Dhaka. The pattern suggests a cycle of provocation and retaliation that is now spilling across different parts of the country.
The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus appealed for calm, but the appeal has not yet broken the cycle. The student-led movement that overthrew Hasina has also advanced a more structural challenge, voicing plans to dismantle Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution, which it says reflects the legacy of Hasina’s father. That makes the crisis both a public-order story and a contest over the political order itself.
Hasina’s government had already been accused of years of repressive rule, and her ouster came after weeks of relentless protests and clashes with security forces. The current crackdown shows that the transition remains highly unstable and that the interim authorities are still trying to assert control in a country where the old leadership remains a live political force.
A Supreme Court lawyer quoted by DW warned that operations presented as law-and-order measures can also produce violations of fundamental rights. That caution matters because mass arrests may temporarily quiet the streets but also deepen distrust between the state and the different camps now competing to shape Bangladesh’s future.
For now, the arrests point to a country still in the middle of a political reckoning. The government is trying to show authority, Hasina’s supporters are still mobilising, and the student-led movement that forced the change in power is pressing its own demands. The result is a volatile mix that has not yet found a stable landing point.
