BSF personnel keep vigil at the India-Bangladesh international Border on the eve of the Independence Day, at Chatrahati in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal .
| Photo Credit: ANI

A retired judge of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court was detained from the northeastern frontier with India in Sylhet while he was allegedly attempting to flee the country, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said late on Friday (August 23, 2024).

The report came hours after the arrest of Awami League leader ASM Firoz from his residence.

Watch: The story of Sheikh Hasina

The BGB headquarters, in an SMS, informed reporters that they have detained former apex appellate division judge of the Supreme Court Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik as he was trying to cross over to India through Sylhet’s Kanaighat border.

Newspaper Prothom Alo said Manik was kept at a BGB outpost till midnight citing the camp’s in-charge.

Bangladesh descended into chaos after ousted premier Sheikh Hasina’s government collapsed and she fled to India on August 5 amid violent protests over quota for government jobs, while the Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.

Before that, anti-government protests had killed more than 500 people since mid-July. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took oath as the Chief Adviser of the interim government on August 8.

Since August 5, a number of leaders of the deposed regime, including senior ministers, have been arrested — many of them on murder charges.

The Bangladesh Army has earlier said that several hundred leaders of Hasina’s Awami League and others have been sheltered in cantonments as their lives were at risk.

Former law minister Anisul Huq and the ex-premier’s private sector affairs adviser Salman F Rahman were the first to be arrested from Dhaka’s main river port Sadarghat terminal area as they were allegedly trying to leave Dhaka on a boat.

A number of members of Hasina’s cabinet, including former foreign minister Hassan Mahmud and former social welfare minister Dipu Moni, several lawmakers and leaders of Awami League and its allies, including pro-left Workers Party chairman Rashed Khan Menon, and a number of recently sacked military and civil officials have been arrested.

This included sacked major general Ziaul Hassan, who was serving as the head of the government’s telecommunications system, and Chittagong Port Authority chairman rear admiral Mohammad Sohail, who once was the spokesman of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.

A TV journalist couple Farzana Rupa and her husband Shakil Ahmed have also been arrested.

Washington:

The United States Wednesday said it is ready to work with the interim government of Bangladesh as the country charts a democratic future for its people.

“We continue to monitor developments in Bangladesh, and we obviously have seen the appointment of Muhammad Yunus as the leader of an interim government,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference.

“We think the interim government will play a vital role in establishing long-term peace and political stability in Bangladesh,” Miller said responding to questions on the fast-moving development in Bangladesh.

A State Department spokesperson, meanwhile, told PTI, “All decisions regarding the interim government should respect democratic principles, rule of law, and the will of the Bangladeshi people.” “We understand Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has agreed to lead Bangladesh’s interim government. We stand ready to work with the interim government, as it charts a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh,” the spokesperson said in response to a question.

Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus is set to take oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday, as he made a fervent appeal to everyone to stay calm and “refrain from all kinds of violence” to make the best use of “our new victory”.

As authorities scrambled to bring the law and order situation under control, Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman on Wednesday announced that the interim government will take oath around 8 pm on Thursday. He said the advisory council may have 15 members.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)