Human Rights Watch has criticised the mass arrest of nearly 290 people from a Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD) gathering in Dhaka, calling it the latest example of an “ongoing assault on civil and political rights” in Bangladesh.
In a statement published Monday, the New York-based rights group said police detained around 290 JASAD supporters from the party’s office on September 26 after members of the ruling BNP’s youth wing, Jubo Dal, alleged that a “secret” Awami League meeting was taking place there.
A court subsequently sent 27 of those detained to custody over allegations that they had chanted “Joy Bangla”, a slogan associated with the now-banned Awami League, HRW said.
JASAD was part of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance that governed Bangladesh until Sheikh Hasina’s government was toppled by the July-August uprising in 2024.
HRW said the BNP itself faced severe repression during Awami League rule but has, since taking office following the February election, targeted perceived political opponents through arbitrary detention.
Hundreds of Awami League members are currently in jail, mostly without charge, it said.
HRW also cited two other recent incidents. Police detained 12 Awami League activists in Barishal on September 26 for allegedly holding a “secret” meeting to plan sabotage, while 15 people were arrested in Dhaka two days later under the Anti-Terrorism Act on similar allegations.
Those detained in both cases said they had gathered to mark Hasina’s birthday, according to HRW.
The rights group acknowledged that Hasina’s rule was marked by widespread abuses, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention of political opponents. HRW has extensively documented such abuses.
But it said abuses under the previous government could not justify similar violations now.
“Past violations of those rights committed when the Awami League was in power cannot justify the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s current violations of the same rights,” HRW said.
HRW said international human rights law guarantees freedom of expression and association for all, warning that Bangladesh’s history offers repeated examples of the consequences of political repression.