STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Human Rights Watch has said Bangladesh’s interim government is “increasingly using the recently amended counterterrorism law to arrest alleged supporters of the deposed Awami League government”.

The United Nations human rights team in Bangladesh should immediately seek the release of those arbitrarily detained and encourage the authorities to uphold rights and prosecute all those who use unlawful political violence, said the global rights body.

The interim government took office in August 2024 after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government was toppled following weeks of protests in which 1,400 people were killed, the rights body said in a statement on Wednesday.

On May 12, 2025, the interim government ordered a ban on the Awami League’s political activities, using new authority under amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, it said. The ban includes prohibitions on meetings, publications, and online speech supporting the party and is being used to “arrest Awami League members and peaceful activists”.

“The interim government should not be engaging in the same Police

237 LIVES LOST TO MOB ATTACKS, POLITICAL VIOLENCE: HRSS -- PAGE 3

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