It was the evening of June 22 in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Former Bangladesh Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Freedom Fighter K.M. Nurul Huda was at his residence in the city’s Uttara neighbourhood when a mob surrounded and forcefully entered his home. They dragged him outside, assaulted him, and placed a garland of shoes around his neck. In the presence of law enforcement officers, a leader of the Jatiotabadi Swechhasebak Dal, the volunteer wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was seen repeatedly hitting Huda in the face with a shoe.
The attackers then handed him over to the police. Mr. Huda was shown arrested after the BNP filed a case against him and 23 others over alleged manipulation of the 2014, 2018, and 2024 parliamentary elections. Just hours after the arrest of Mr. Huda, another former CEC, Kazi Habibul Awal, has also been arrested.
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According to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading human rights organization, at least 83 people lost their lives in incidents of mob violence between January and June 2025, describing it as a grave anarchy in a civilized country. The Bangladesh Army remains deployed alongside police forces to maintain law and order, as full stability is yet to be restored. Meanwhile, internal conflict within the BNP continues, while arrests and attacks targeting leaders and supporters of the Awami League are ongoing. Since the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, a total of 112 former MPs including former ministers and state ministers, have been arrested, according to police and other sources. Among them are 12 former female MPs. To date, seven of those arrested have been released on bail.
