An officially secular but Muslim majority nation, Bangladesh has recently seen a surge of targeted killings – blamed on Islamist radicals – that have claimed the lives of secularists, religious minorities and gay activists.
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At least 1600 people were arrested after law enforcement agents began the crackdown on Islamist militants on Friday, police spokesman Kamrul Ahsan told reporters in Dhaka.
Authorities in Bangladesh arrested more than 5000 people over the weekend, including 85 suspected Islamist militants.
On June 11, Prime Minister Hasina told an Awami League meeting that her government is committed to arresting those behind the murders.
The killing on Friday morning of a Hindu worker in northern Bangladesh was also claimed by ISIL, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring group.
Days after that attack, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to root out radicals and defeat their bid to establish Islamic rule in the country.
Since February, a number of non-Muslim worshipers, including Hindus and Christians, as well as secular writers and liberal activists have been hacked, with the most recent incident took place on Friday, when a Hindu priest was nearly decapitated.
The opposition parties claim that many of their leaders have been among those arrested during the government’s week-long drive.
All arrests were made on charges relating to firearms, narcotics and other offenses, national police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque said.
Reiterating her government commitment to arrest the killers of all secret killings, she said, “Where the criminals will hide in?”
His comments came just days after a European Union delegation said there was an unprecedented threat to human rights and freedom of expression in Bangladesh and urged Dhaka to tackle the challenge to protect its global reputation.
Police chose to start the nationwide militant’s crackdown on Thursday five days after the brutal murder of Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Akter in the port city Chittagong. “Each and every killer will be brought to book”, she added. Opposition groups in the country also expressed concern that the government would use campaigns like this to suppress opposition. Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for more than 20 of the killings.
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Of them, 1,861 were held following the issue of arrest warrants by court, police said in a media release on Saturday. In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
