New Delhi: Senior Awami League leader and Bangladesh’s first female speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was arrested early Tuesday by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in connection with violence during the July 2024 protests.
The 59-year-old was taken into custody from her residence in Dhanmondi around 4:30 am, according to local reports.
The arrest was made in a case linked to violence and vandalism on 18 July 2024 in the Azimpur Government Colony at Lalbagh.
A man named Ashraful, who was injured in the alleged police firing that day, filed a case on 25 May 2025, naming 130 individuals, including the former speaker and then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Before that, on 27 August 2024, another case was filed against Chaudhury in connection with the death of a jeweller, Muslim Uddin, in Rangpur during the July uprising.
The murder case named Chaudhury and 16 others, including former commerce minister Tipu Munshi. Munshi remains in custody in connection with the case, Dhaka Tribune reported.
Four terms as speaker
On 30 April 2013, Chaudhury made history when she became the first woman to preside over the Jatiya Sangsad, Bangladesh’s national legislature. She initially entered Parliament in 2009 through a seat reserved for women, later serving as a state minister for women and children affairs before being elected speaker.
She resigned on 2 September 2024, close to a month after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, even though Constitutional law required her to continue until a successor was sworn in. Chaudhury served four consecutive terms before her resignation.
Statement of the Bangladesh Awami League demanding an end to ongoing mass arrests and custodial killings
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The Bangladesh Awami League observes with deep concern that, in continuation of the illegal, usurping, murderous, and fascist government of Muhammad Yunus, the present… pic.twitter.com/znd53Pj5cj
— Bangladesh Awami League (@albd1971) March 2, 2026
Following the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August 2024, cases have been filed against several of its leaders across the country.
Last month, the party voiced deep concern over what it described as widespread arrests and custodial deaths of political leaders and activists nationwide, warning that such actions violate fundamental rights and erode the rule of law.
The party accused the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of following the “tactics” of the interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, by “employing” the state machinery to carry out “repression, torture, and suppression” to stifle dissent and pursue political retribution.
“Mass arrests of political leaders and activists, along with deaths in custody, continue unabated. Repeated detentions, indiscriminate remand orders, and reports of custodial deaths are fueling widespread pain and anger across the country,” the Awami League said in a statement on X.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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