Bangladesh Arrests Ex-parliamentary Speaker Over 2024 Uprising Cases

DHAKA, April 7 (Bernama-dpa) -- Police have arrested former Bangladeshi parliamentary speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in connection with cases related to the suppression of 2024 mass uprising that ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

Chaudhury, 59, was arrested at the home of her relatives in Dhaka's Dhanmondi residential area on Tuesday morning, officer Shafiqul Alam said.

The former speaker was then taken into the custody of the detective branch of the police, he added.

Chaudhury was the first female speaker of the Muslim-majority South Asian country, having been elected on April 30, 2013, to preside over the national legislative sessions.

She held the position continuously until her resignation in September 2024, nearly a month after Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government was toppled on Aug 5, 2024, following  a violent uprising.

Officer Nasirul Islam said police are reviewing the cases filed against her. She will be brought before court under specific charges, the officer added.

Chaudhury has been accused in several cases related to the violence during the mass uprising, including the death of a goldsmith in the northern district of Rangpur.

She was a lawmaker of Hasina's Awami League party from a parliamentary constituency in Rangpur.

Hasina, who is now exiled in India, was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by a special court in Dhaka in November 2025 for the brutal suppression of the uprising, which, according to a UN estimate, left some 1,400 people killed.

-- BERNAMA-dpa