769 arrested on Day 14 of Operation Devil Hunt

Security forces have arrested as many as 769 people on the 14th day of the nationwide crackdown styled “Operation Devil Hunt”.

A further 572 people were apprehended in connection with other cases and warrants.

The Police Headquarters in a message on Saturday said a total of 1,341 people have been detained from different parts of Bangladesh in the past 24 hours.

Authorities reported recovering a home-made single-barrel gun, two cartridges, an LG gun, and sharp weapons such as four ram daos or swords, two chapatis or machetes, a knife, and a pair of scissors in the past 24 hours.

In the past 13 days of the nationwide crackdown, 6,771 arrests have been made, bringing the total to 21,375 by law-enforcing agencies over the 14 days since the drive began.

The interim government launched the operation following an attack on the home of former Liberation War affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque in Gazipur on Feb 7, during which several people were injured and property was damaged.

The special operation, targeting "instigators of instability", was launched by joint forces on Feb 8.

While police initially reported the arrest of 1,308 people nationwide within the operation’s first 24 hours, they did not specify how many were directly linked to Operation Devil Hunt.

Police Headquarters has been providing updates on the total arrests over the past 13 days, including those made during Operation Devil Hunt.

In a violent turn in the wee hours of Thursday, two men, Jumman and Miraj, both identified by single names, were killed in a shootout with security forces in the Chand Udyan area of Mohammadpur.

Authorities described them as known criminals operating in the neighbourhood.