President of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh Rashed Khan Menon Arrested
Seen as Part of a Broader Crackdown Against Allies of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Veteran Bangladeshi left leader Rashed Khan Menon (81) was arrested in Dhaka on Thursday 22 August. Menon is the president of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh (WPB) and served as a member of the country’s recently dissolved parliament. The news comes after a recent attack on the party’s premises.
The exact charges against Menon have yet to be made public by the police, but it is widely speculated that his arrest is part of a broader crackdown against members and allies of the former government led by ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The WPB was part of a 14-party alliance led by Hasina’s Awami League during the elections held in January this year, where Menon was also elected.
He was the sole representative of the WPB in the parliament. He had served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Education and as a minister in the government led by Hasina between 2014 and 2018.
An interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on 8 August, following Hasina’s resignation and departure from the country amid widespread protests against her administration. These protests, initially sparked by student demands for reforms in the government job quota system, were supported by the WPB.
The protests escalated into violence in the last weeks of July following a crackdown by the former government. This unrest attracted various groups, including religious extremists like Jamaat-e-Islami, and led to the targeting of public property and attacks on members of the Awami League and other ruling alliance parties. In the weeks that followed, clashes between protesters and security forces resulted in hundreds of deaths.
A significant number of murder charges have been filed against Hasina, who is currently residing in India, as well as against several members of her former cabinet. In addition, members of the Awami League have been killed by mobs. Several former ministers and party members have been arrested.