Yunus slammed over using arbitrary arrests to silence dissent in Bangladesh
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Awami League party on Saturday once again slammed the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, accusing it of using arbitrary arrests as a weapon to suppress dissent and neutralise political opposition in the country.
The party alleged that everyone from grassroots activists and former ministers to noted intellectuals and ordinary citizens participating in a procession is detained not for proven crimes but simply for expressing political allegiance or exercising their right to assembly.
“The surge in arbitrary arrests across Bangladesh is neither random nor isolated; it is systematic, targetted, and designed to dismantle the very foundations of political organisation. Each case reveals a disturbing pattern: pervasive surveillance, preemptive detention, and the deliberate criminalisation of peaceful or symbolic acts of dissent,” the Awami League stated.
“The arrests of former minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui and Dhaka University professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman Karzon after a Manch 71 roundtable show that even civil discussions are treated as criminal acts. Initially detained under the pretext of mob disorder, they were later formally arrested under anti-terror laws. These actions transform academic debate and policy discourse into evidence of conspiracy, signalling that there is no safe space left, not in classrooms, discussion forums, or the press,” it added.
According to the Awami League, the most alarming example of such abuse of power under the Yunus regime is the arrest of Abu Alam Shahid Khan, a retired senior secretary and once Press Secretary to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. His only crime was attending a roundtable discussion on constitutional reform organised by the platform ‘Mancha 71’ in Dhaka.
The party asserted that as a respected bureaucrat turned public policy analyst, Khan embodied the intellectual space that every society needs for dialogue, debate, and critical reflection. By dragging him into custody, it said, the Yunus regime effectively declared that no arena is safe, not television studios, not lecture halls, not civil society gatherings.
Raising concern, the Awami League added that if even the most credentialed voices of reason are silenced, ordinary citizens of Bangladesh are left to believe that speaking out at all is dangerous.
“The consequences of these arbitrary arrests extend far beyond the immediate detention of individuals; they strike at the heart of Bangladesh’s democratic fabric. By systematically silencing opposition voices, the regime ensures that the political landscape remains unchallenged, creating a ruling vacuum sustained not through legitimacy or popular support, but through repression,” the party stressed.
“Democratic mechanisms, debate, dissent, and protest are replaced by surveillance, intimidation, and coercion. The very notion of political accountability erodes when fear becomes the currency of governance,” it added.