Law enforcement and security agencies arrested 1,230 individuals more between Friday and Saturday across the country in the ongoing Operation Devil Hunt, taking the total number of arrests in the drive to 8,079 since the operation began on February 8.
They also seized one foreign pistol, two locally-made LG guns, one shooter gun, one samurai type sword and other sharp weapons in the operation in the past two days ending at 8:00am on Saturday, said two separate police headquarters press releases.
On Saturday, 1,341 individuals, including 769 in the ongoing Operation Devil Hunt, while on Friday, 1,650 individuals, including 461 in the devil hunt drive, were arrested.
Outside the Operation Devil Hunt, 572 arrests were made on Saturday in different cases across the country, while 1,189 arrests were made in different cases on Friday, the releases added.
Earlier on February 19, 1,583 individuals, including 532 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested.
On February 18, 1,647 individuals, including 506 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested, while 1,503 arrests, including 529 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were made on February 17.
On February 16, 1,140, including 389 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested, while on February 15, 1,347 individuals, including 477 in the operation, were arrested.
On February 9, total 1,308 people were arrested, according to police officials.
On February 10, total 1,521, including 343 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested. On February 11, another 1,775 people, including 607 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested. On February 12, total 1,686 people, including 591 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were arrested, On February 13, total 1,665 arrests, including 566 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were made, and on February 14, total 1,457 arrests, including 509 in the Operation Devil Hunt, were made.
In the period, total 21,375 people, mostly Awami League leaders and activists, were arrested, police officials said.
On the night of February 7, at least 15 members of the Students Against Discrimination were injured in a counter attack by local people over an alleged attack on the former liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque of the ousted AL government, leading to the death of Abdul Kashem, 17, one of the injured, while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The Operation Devil Hunt was announced in the aftermath of a spate of attacks carried out on the houses of Awami League leaders, party offices, and the murals and portraits of the country鈥檚 founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his daughter deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina since February 5 when the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum building at Dhanmondi 32 in Dhaka was razed to the ground.
The chaotic situation ensued when different groups on their social media platforms called on people to join the 鈥楤ulldozer procession鈥� to demolish the Dhanmondi 32 building over a speech of Sheikh Hasina, now sheltered in India following her ouster amid a mass uprising, to the country鈥檚 student community online on February 5 evening.
