Following widespread jailbreaks during the summer of the student-led movement that overthrew autocratic former Premier Sheikh Hasina, police reported Wednesday that some 700 prisoners in Bangladesh were still at large.
When her administration fell at the height of a popular uprising in August, Hasina escaped to neighboring India, where she is still today.
About 2,200 prisoners escaped from their cells in five prisons across the Muslim-majority South Asian country in the weeks before to her departure due to protester-led uprisings or sieges.
Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain, the head of prisons, told reporters that some 1,500 of those inmates had since been apprehended, while the others were remained at large. According to Hossain, at least 70 fugitives were either death row inmates or “terrorists.”
On July 19, hundreds of protesters marched on a jail in Narsingdi, east of the capital Dhaka, burning the building down and releasing hundreds of prisoners.
In the weeks that followed, attacks also occurred on four additional prisons, including a high-security establishment in Kashimpur that housed some of the most infamous criminals in the nation.
The remaining escapees are still being sought after, according to police spokesman Imam Hossain Sagar. “All police stations have been directed to remain vigilant and apprehend the fugitives,” he stated.
Sagar went on to say that police were also keeping a careful eye on a number of “top terrorists” who had been given bail by the courts after Hasina was overthrown.
