Ehsanul Haque Jasim :The joint-force has intensified its countrywide drive against the BNP-Jamaatmen following rejection of the review petitions of war crimes convicts Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed. Leaders and workers of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami alleged that the joint-force has been carrying out mass-arrest across the country against their men. Many leaders and workers of the parties have left their houses and areas to avert arrest. Police, however, claimed the joint force has been carrying out drives against the accused and the suspected people as well as the criminals. Observers said that the law enforcers intensified their countrywide drives in a bid to avert untoward incidents following rejection of the review pleas of BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed. The Supreme Court rejected the review pleas on Wednesday, upholding the death penalty to them for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.Several thousands leaders and workers of the BNP were arrested across the country in the last couple of days since beginning of this special drive. Several hundreds were arrested in the last two days since rejection of the review pleas. BNP leaders said that the joint-force’s drive has multiple purposes, including to obstruct BNP’s councils and thwart the party’s reconstruction process and to hold farcical municipality polls in December. The party’s spokesman Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon on Thursday said, “The government is arresting their leaders and workers massively in false and fabricated cases. Even, the common people are also being arrested and harassed in the special drive”. Jamaat leaders said that their men are being arrested massively in grassroots more than the cities. Hafizur Rahman, a Jamaat leader of Terokhada in Khulna and the municipality Mayor aspirant, said, “After imprisonment for a long time, I still cannot stay in my house. The law enforcers harass my family members, including my aged parents, and once ransacked my house. They also filed false cases against my family members, including my younger brother SM Mahbubur Rahman who is living in London.”Many BNP-Jamaat men were arrested from different parts of the country from Wednesday to Thursday evening during the drives of joint-force. In Kushtia, police in separate drives arrested 21 activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami, some of them are females, from different areas of the district early on Thursday on sabotage charges. Kushtia Police Super Proloy Chisim said that law enforcers conducted drives in different areas from Wednesday night to Thursday early morning and arrested them.In Magura, police arrested at least 22 people, including nine leaders and activists of BNP-Jamaat, from different parts of the district. General secretary of Shalikha upazila unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Abdur Rashid and Sadar upazila BNP leader and UP Chairman Abul Quashem Titab are among the arrested people. In Pirojpur, at least 33 people were arrested in the drives of joint-force from several upazilas, including Sadar upazila, Kaukhali, Swarupkati, Nazirpur, Zianagar and Bhandaria.In Natore, police arrested president of District woman Jammat Shahnaz Shely and six other BNP-Jamaat men from different parts of the district.
