The HR bodies yesterday at a meeting with Bangladesh Bar Council decided to serve a legal notice on the government today challenging the legality of the mass arrests. The notice will ask the BNP-led coalition government to immediately release the arrestees and compensate the victims, sources said.

They will also issue a statement at a press conference today to express concern at the ongoing mindless arrests.

The organisations filed an application with the High Court yesterday seeking an injunction against the mass arrests and implementation of a court ruling in last April in this regard, which the government ignored.

The government launched the blanket-arrest drive on September 21 in an apparent attempt to quell the opposition movement and foil the October 3 grand rally, in particular, fomenting around the August 21 assassination attempt on Leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina.

The police and paramilitary forces have detained more than 5,000 opposition activists and innocent people till yesterday in a countrywide crackdown that will run through October 3, sources said.

Since the start of the clampdown, Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed has denied the mass arrests. His cabinet colleague State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar said the government launched the countrywide drive to catch criminals.

Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil however alleged the drive has been launched to thwart the opposition agitation, which has seen hundreds of his party activists thrown behind bars.

In the wake of the wholesale arrests that have created panic among people, human-rights activist Hamida Hossain yesterday filed the application to the High Court on behalf of a number of human-rights and legal aid organisations.

"We will move the High Court today with the application seeking injunction for an immediate stop to the mass arrests and release of the arrestees," Barrister Tanjib Ul Alam, lawyer for the applicants, told The Daily Star yesterday.

At the joint meeting attended by the senior activists of the Human Rights and Legal Aid Commission under the Bangladesh Bar Council, Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Sammilito Nari Samaj and Karmajibi Nari discussed whether they should file a fresh writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the mass arrests.

The human-rights organisations are likely to file a fresh writ petition with the High Court next week having taken into account the response of the legal notice and the application filed to the High Court, a human-rights activist said yesterday, wishing anonymity.

Earlier, the government did not respond to a court ruling that asked it to explain in three weeks why section 86 of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Ordinance, under which the police made 15,000 arrests before AL's April 30 deadline for the fall of the government, should not be declared a violation of the constitution.

The High Court also directed the government to submit a report with names and particulars of the arrestees and the steps taken for their release from jail.

The government did not comply with the court order and, instead, it launched the latest countrywide crackdown on opposition adherents.

In yesterday's application filed with the High Court, Hamida Hossain said it is evident that the government has been arresting innocent and poor citizens of Dhaka City and elsewhere in total disregard of the fundamental rights of the citizens guaranteed under the constitution.

The recent mass arrest of innocent citizens under section 86 of the DMP Ordinance and Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code is manifestly illegal and without lawful authority, the application asserts.

Unless the government is prevented, through an injunction, from arresting innocent citizens, the fundamental rights of the citizens would continue to be violated without any legal redress, the application warns.