Arrest drive on

The joint force and police yesterday arrested 169 opposition leaders and activists in nine districts for their alleged links with arson attacks, felling of trees and vandalism during the recent blockades and hartals.
Meanwhile, law enforcers in the capital released three women BNP leaders -- party Vice-chairman Selima Rahman, lawmaker Rasheda Begum Hira and former MP Halima Newaz Arli -- two hours after they had been detained in front of party chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan residence, party sources said.
Police held them as they were about to enter the house, to which Khaleda had been restricted since Sunday, the day she was due to address the opposition-called "March for Democracy" rally.
The arrests were made in Khulna, Bogra, Jhenidah, Lalmonirhat, Bagerhat, Moulvibazar, Chittagong, Narayanganj and Satkhira in drives by police and the joint force that began an operation on December 15 in Satkhira in the wake of escalating political violence.
Police held 65 opposition men in nine upazilas of Chittagong in connection with sabotage in the recent blockades and hartals.

Of them, 10 were BNP activists, 16 of Jamaat and 39 of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat, said district police sources.
Khulna police arrested 54 BNP-Jamaat men in the city and eight upazilas on charges of subversive activities.
Ten of them were rounded up in the city, said Rasheda Begum, additional police commissioner of Khulna Metropolitan Police.
Fifteen other BNP activists were picked up from seven upazilas of Bogra for their alleged involvement in the recent attacks on ruling party offices, government establishments and police stations in the district.
Bogra Assistant Superintendent of police Gaziur Rahman said they had made the arrests in overnight drives.
In Jhenidah, police arrested Manderbaria Union Parishad Chairman Jaglul Pasha, also president of the union unit of BNP, in connection with felling trees and vandalism, said Moheshpur Police Station Office-in-Charge Akram Hossain.
In a drive by the joint force, 23 BNP activists were arrested at Mohendranagar in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila in connection with the torching of a truck on Lalmonirhat-Rangpur highway Sunday evening.  
Police yesterday noon also arrested a Jamaat activist, an accused in a case filed for an attack on police on December 11 at Foila bus stand of Rampal upazila in Bagerhat.
The joint force in Moulvibazar arrested eight Jamaat-Shibir men in different parts of the district while police held three people from Narayanganj.
In Satkhira, the joint force arrested four BNP-Jamaat men for their alleged involvement in felling trees, sabotage and anarchy. Of them, Jamaat activist Mosharraf Hossain was awarded two years' imprisonment for his involvement in sabotage.
According to a source at the police headquarters, some 2,200 people were arrested across the country yesterday whereas on any ususal day 1,500 people get arrested.