DHAKA: Hundreds of Bangladeshi opposition activists have been arrested, police and party officials said on Friday, ahead of a major rally where campaigners hope more than a million people will take to the streets of Dhaka.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its leftist allies, along with several Islamist outfits, have been mounting protests demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and let a neutral government oversee elections due by the end of January.

Hasina — daughter of the country’s founding leader — has been in power for 15 years and has overseen rapid economic growth with Bangladesh overtaking neighbouring India in GDP per capita, but her government is accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

The BNP has called a “grand rally” for Saturday, with party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan saying it expects “more than a million people” to turn out.

“A sea of people will join the protest,” he said.

He said police had arrested at least 1,500 people including several senior BNP officials in the past four days in an effort to disrupt preparations.

“They have raided door to door and arrested people while they were holding meeting indoors,” he said.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain confirmed there had been detentions but rejected the figure, saying some 400 BNP activists and supporters had been held in the past week.

“We are arresting only those people who face cases or arrest warrants,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2023