DHAKA: The High Court on Wednesday imposed "temporary injunction" on mass arrests by police on mere suspicion until October 3 - the date of the hearing of a writ petition, seeking injunction on the police drive that began on September 23.

The HC order came after four human rights NGOs filed a petition the day before, seeking an injunction on the current government crackdown. The NGOs - Ain O Salish Kendra, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Karmajibi Nari and the Jatiya Ainjibi Parishad - also sought an order on the government to release the people who were arrested during the police drive.

The police have reportedly arrested some 10,000 people, of them over 2,000 from the capital, over the last six days. Most of the victims were "shown arrested" under Section 86 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Act and Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. For arbitrary arrest the police, on the ground of suspicion, usually use both the sections.

Notably, the government resorted to the mass-arrest drive without complying with a previous High Court rule, issued by a special division bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice Syed Refat Ahmed on April 27, 2004, asking it to submit a report within three weeks detailing the names and particulars of persons arrested between April 18 and April 26 without any warrant.

According to the information that police headquarters supplied to the attorney general's office, 6,494 people were arrested between April 18 and 25, 2004. Of them, 4,108 were arrested under Section 86 of the DMP Ordinance, 161 under Section 54 of the CrPC, 321 under Section 151 of the CrPC (on suspicion of planning a cognizable offence), 819 in specific cases or on suspicion of being concerned in cognizable offences and 1,082 for "other penal offences".

Besides, 2,183 were sentenced to imprisonment for 2-3 days, 1,359 were sentenced with a fine of Tk 100-200 each and 566 were granted bail. The sentenced people have already been released after serving the jail terms or paying the fines, police headquarters claimed.

The court also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause within three weeks why Section 86 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance would not be declared to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect, being ultra vires of the constitution. But the government is yet to comply with the court's directives.

The attorney general's office told the press on September 26 that they had received government instructions on the matter on May 19 and the preparation of the reply was underway. "It is the practice of the court that a reply to a rule is submitted to the court when the matter comes up for hearing," said Additional Attorney General Fida M Kamal.

However, this time the writ petition, moved before a vacation bench of Justice Md Awlad Ali and Justice AFM Abdur Rahman on September 29, said the mass arrests patently showed that the law enforcers had been exercising the unfettered power conferred on them by Section 86 of the DMP Ordinance, which allows the power to be used as an instrument of oppression.

The general secretary of the Awami League, Abdul Jalil, repeatedly claimed over the last week that the crackdown was targeting the opposition activists before the party's anti-government grand rally in Dhaka, which is scheduled for October 3. But police continue to deny the opposition's allegations.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ashraful Huda told newsmen in the DMP headquarters on September 28 that the "arrests were made as part of an anti-crime drive".

"Police did not arrest any political leaders. Only criminals were arrested," claimed the Detective Branch's Deputy Commissioner, Faruk Hossain, who was also present at the briefing.

Meanwhile, the media reports, following field-level investigations, show that most of the victims of the mass arrest are politically innocent, poor citizens having no criminal records.