The High Court (HC)on Wednesday ordered the government to submit by November 23 a list of those arrested between September 22 and October 3 under Section 86 of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Ordinance.
A HC Division bench comprising Justice MA Matin and Justice ASM Abdur Rahman delivered the ruling on a supplementary affidavit on a petition filed by a number of rights groups on September 29 protesting what they said were indiscriminate arrests under the section.
Law enforcers drew heavily on the section to carry out the blanket arrests launched on September 22 apparently to quell the opposition uprising, fomenting over the August 21 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally and, in particular, to foil its grand rally in the capital on October 3.
On September 29, acting on the petition of the rights activists, another HC bench had issued an injunction against such indiscriminate mass arrests of opposition adherents and apolitical people alike under the section.