Dhaka: Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the first woman to become speaker of the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad, was arrested by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Tuesday.
Shirin was arrested by the police’s Detective Branch (DB) in connection with a case filed at Lalbagh police station over incidents of violence and vandalism during the mass uprising, as reported by Prothom Alo.
She had been in hiding at various locations, a DB source told the newspaper. Most recently, she had been staying at a relative’s residence in Dhanmondi, from where she was detained on Tuesday morning.
M N Nasir Uddin, deputy commissioner of the DMP’s media division said that Shirin is currently being interrogated, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
“As far as we know, cases have been filed against her over incidents during the July movement at Banani and Uttara police stations in the capital. There is also a case against her in Rangpur,” he said.
Shirin served as speaker of the Bangladesh parliament from April 2013 till September 2024. She was elected as a Member of Parliament from the Rangpur-6 constituency, PTI reported.
After the uprising of July 2024 that toppled the Awami League administration, most of the party’s top leaders went into hiding, with several former ministers and MPs facing arrest.
The speaker did not appear publicly during this period and was absent from the interim government’s oath-taking ceremony on August 8, 2024.
While Bangladesh president Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved the parliament the day after Hasina fled the country, constitutional rules dictate that the speaker remains in office until a successor takes the oath. Shirin, however, opted to quit before that transition, bdnews 24 reported.
She originally entered the parliament in 2009 through a reserved seat for women and served as the state minister for women and children affairs before her elevation to the speaker’s chair.
