According to a home ministry decision, additional forces were withdrawn from bus, launch and rail stations where most people were arrested in the run-up to the April 30 deadline of the main opposition Awami League (AL) for unseating the coalition government.

Despite the instruction to halt the arrest spree, police on the last day of sweeps netted 162 people in the capital yesterday, far down from 2,000 on average a day immediately after the launch of the raids.

A police headquarters source told The Daily Star that the home ministry instruction was relayed to police officials early yesterday.

The drive to arrest opposition leaders and activists and workers of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Proshika, began on April 18, as the government believed the NGO had a role in AL's demonstration to dislodge the BNP-led coalition two and a half years ahead of the expiry of its five-year term.

Intelligence sources said the government issued the directive to put a brake on mass arrests after intelligence agencies 'confirmed' the Proshika network collapsed and one of its key officials admitted to his role in the alleged ploy.

An intelligence official quoted a remanded deputy director of Proshika as telling the joint interrogation cell that the NGO planned to aid the main opposition in toppling the government.

The government is gathering evidence to bring sedition charges against Proshika Chairman Kazi Faruq Ahmed, he said.

Police had information that Proshika could be instrumental in making AL's antigovernment demonstration in the capital on April 24, 25 and 26 a success.

The government mounted a sharp watch on AL adherents after the main opposition party made its 22km human shield in Dhaka on March 30 successful.

"The government, fearing large-scale protest ahead, tightened its anti-AL surveillance," another intelligence official said, asking not to be named.

"The purpose of mass arrests was served and AL and NGO workers could not reorganise themselves," the official said.

Most people arrested under Dhaka Metropolitan Police Act and Section 54 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were sentenced without their appearance in court, let alone scope for self-defence.

Allegations are rife that many innocent people were held on arrival in Dhaka from other districts.

The blanket arrests also gave the police a chance to make a windfall in bribes. Many victims were reported to have paid the law-enforcers a large sum for freedom.

At the lower judiciary, run by the executive, hordes of arrestees are undergoing another round of ordeal. A huge pile of cases has lengthened the court procedure, leaving people waiting in cramped lock-ups in intense heat and without food and water.

Human rights groups, professional bodies and political parties protested the mass arrests and termed the police action unconstitutional.