BNP: Govt desperate to wipe out opposition with wholesale arrests, repression

The BNP on Wednesday alleged that the government has become desperate to eliminate the BNP and other parties by indiscriminately arresting the opposition leaders and activists across the country.

Speaking at a virtual press briefing, party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also said that arresting BNP leaders and activists and placing them on remand are now one of the best weapons of the government to cling to power.

The BNP leader said police along with the ruling party “cadres” attacked the pro-democratic opposition activists in different places across the country during the second day of the blockade program as they did on the first day.

“The BNP leaders and activists are being arrested indiscriminately without any stoppage while block raids are also being conducted in different areas and localities to wipe out the BNP and the opposition parties. The government is also adopting all methods to eliminate democracy from the country. They’re doing this desperately,” he said.

Rizvi said the government is trying to hush up the stories of plundering and money laundering by the Awami League leaders by suppressing the opposition parties.

He said the opposition leaders and followers are being subjected to repression as they are in a movement to restore freedom of speech and all democratic rights.

The BNP leader claimed that at least 2,563 BNP leaders and activists have been arrested all over the country in 55 fresh cases since October 28 centring the party’s grand rally at Naya Paltan and Sunday's hartal and the ongoing blockade program.

Besides, he said their party’s 3,436 leaders and activists were injured and eight others and a journalist were killed in police actions during the period.

Rizvi said the police were encouraged to increase the level of their repression against the BNP leaders and activists following the prime minister’s statement on the violence justifying the actions of the law enforcers.

He said the bloodshed by law enforcers on October 28, 29, 30 and 31 was unprecedented. “She (Prime Minister) lied blatantly in front of the whole nation in her press conference at Ganabhaban (on Tuesday). But how do you (PM) refute what the countrymen and the international community have closely observed? The United Nations Human Rights Commission said that the people wearing helmets and masks belong to the ruling party.”

The BNP leader said that the people of the country do not believe the 'false and fabricated' allegations made by the prime minister against the BNP in connection with political violence.

Rizvi said the arrested BNP leaders and activists are going through extreme predicaments in jail. "The BNP leaders who were once ministers and MPs are not given division in jail. BNP leaders are being kept in dark and solitary cells in a suffocating atmosphere. They're kept inside the cells even during the day.”

He said that BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas was placed on a five-day remand after he was arrested on Tuesday night. “This is oppression. He's sick and suffering from various diseases, including diabetes…I strongly condemn and protest the persecution and torture against BNP leaders and activists in prisons by the jail authorities.”

Source: UNB