Operation Devil Hunt: arrests in nationwide crackdown surpass 18,000

Police say at least 492 arrests have been made in the past 24 hours

Authorities have arrested as many as 18,384 people across Bangladesh as part of "Operation Devil Hunt” - a nationwide crackdown led by joint security forces - over the course of 12 days.

In an update on Thursday, Police Headquarters reported that 492 people had been taken into custody in the past 24 hours under the initiative.

An additional 1,260 arrests were made in connection with other cases and outstanding warrants.

Law-enforcing agencies also disclosed the seizure of weapons, including pipe guns, cartridges, and bladed instruments such as machetes and ram-daos.

The government launched the operation after the residence of former Liberation War Affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque was attacked and vandalised in Gazipur on Feb 7. Several had been left injured following the incident.

Later, law-enforcing agencies initiated the crackdown on the evening of Feb 8, vowing to apprehend those accused of "destabilising" the country.

While police initially reported the arrest of 1,308 people nationwide within the operation’s first 24 hours, they did not specify how many were directly linked to Operation Devil Hunt.

However, in subsequent days, authorities provided separate tallies for arrests tied to the special operation and those related to other cases and warrants.

In a violent turn in the wee hours of Thursday, two men, Jumman and Miraj, both identified by single names, were killed in a shootout with security forces in the Chand Udyan area of Mohammadpur.

Authorities described them as known criminals operating in the neighbourhood.

In a press release on Thursday, the Inter-Services Public Relations, or ISPR, said that a joint force team conducted an operation in Mohammadpur's Chand Udyan area around 12:30am based on information about “preparations for a robbery”.

When the joint forces personnel surrounded both sides of a lane, the “criminals” opened fire from the roof of a one-story building, it said.

"The operation team immediately took countermeasures in self-defence and was able to arrest five criminals along with their weapons."

A search was later conducted in the house, and the bodies of two people were recovered from the roof, the statement read.

A pistol, four rounds of bullets and a machete were recovered from the detainees.

They have been handed over to Mohammadpur Police Station.