Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch (DB) has arrested 25 leaders and activists of Awami League and its affiliated bodies in separate drives in the capital over 24 hours till 8am on Sunday for their alleged plan to release 100,000 balloons with Awami League slogans.

They had also planned to release 100,000 gas balloons carrying slogans of the Awami League in Dhaka, including near the State Guest House Jamuna between November 10 and 12, said DMP’s Deputy Commissioner (DC-Media) Talebur Rahman on Sunday afternoon.

Based on secret information, a number of teams of DB’s Mirpur, Ramna, Cyber, Motijheel, Wari, Uttara, Tejgaon, Lalbagh, and Gulshan divisions conducted simultaneous drives in the capital and arrested them.

The arrestees were identified as Rupchan Bepari, Abrar Khan Tahmid alias Tahmid Ashraf, Raihan Khan alias Azad, ABM Nurul Haque alias Choton Chowdhury, Abul Kalam Azad alias Bablu, Gias Uddin Khokon, Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, Sirajul Islam alias Ahmad Ali, Jasim alias Billal, Mahbub Rahman, Jahangir Alam, Engineer Abul Kalam, Mohammad Shahjalal, Delwar Hossain alias Palash, Yunus Sardar, Akbar Hossain, Abu Sayeed, Shamsuddin Ahmed Selim, Raihan Uddin Rehan, Mezbah Uddin Prince, Morium Parvin, Nasir Sarkar alias Golakata Nasir, Ali Hossain, Manik Khondokar, and Habibur Rahman Kamal.

DB officials said operations to maintain law and order and prevent subversive activities will continue and legal action against the arrestees will be underway.