Bangladesh Police Arrest Over 1,300 People After Protests

Bangladesh police today announced more than 1,300 arrests in a major crackdown dubbed 'Devil Hunt' targeting gangs the government suspects have links to ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina, 77, is accused by the Bangladeshi justice system of crimes against humanity and is the target of several international arrest warrants.

The operation, vowed Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, who has been acting head of the government's interior ministry since Sheikh Hasina fled after two straight weeks of protests, will continue "until the demons are rooted out."

According to police spokesman Inamul Haque Sagar, since the operation began on Saturday, "1,308 people have been arrested across the country."

The arrests began after a series of protests last week, mainly by students, which ended up destroying several buildings linked to Sheikh Hasina's family.

The students, who also led last summer's protests, began demonstrating when it became known that Hasina would address her supporters on Facebook on February 5 -- the sixth month after her escape -- from neighboring India, where she has sought refuge.

Among the buildings destroyed in the protests is the house, now a museum, of his father, the country's first President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, located in the capital, Dhaka.

Civil rights activists condemned the violence.

Meanwhile, anti-Hasina protesters and members of her Awami League party also clashed.

The interim government blamed the violence on the former prime minister, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 2009 until her exile, and who has posted a series of messages on social media, mobilizing her supporters.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the leader of the interim government, called on Friday for calm, but hours later members of the Students Against Discrimination movement were attacked in Dhaka's Gazipur district.

The group's members, some of whom are part of the interim government, demanded action against the perpetrators of the attacks, which led the government to begin the crackdown.