A total of 345 Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders and activists were arrested on Thursday and were sent to jail through court on Friday, the day the opposition party held its mega rally to press home its demand for a non-partisan government.
The arrestees were brought before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and the Chief Judicial Magistrate courts in Dhaka, and the courts ordered them to be sent to jail.
Earlier, on Thursday, 473 more BNP activists were sent to jail.
Thus, over the course of two days, a total of 818 BNP leaders have been imprisoned.
In 35 police stations across Dhaka, a total of 279 were shown arrested in connection to various old cases and 61 were shown arrested under suspicion of criminal activity under sections 151 and 154 of the penal code.
The police subsequently submitted an application to jail these leaders.
Furthermore, five activists from three different police stations in Dhaka district were also presented before the court, which later ordered their detention.
Legal representatives of the BNP applied for bail on behalf of the arrested leaders and activists.
However, after the hearing, the courts rejected their bail applications and ordered them to be sent to jail.
The opposition BNP and its alliances have announced to hold sit-ins at seven important entry points into Dhaka on Saturday.
The sit-ins are scheduled to take place from 11am to 4pm.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the program during Friday's mega rally.
He said BNP will announce continuous movements from now.
