BNP: Khaleda being deprived of minimum lawful facilities in jail

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday alleged that the party’s Chairperson Khaleda Zia is being deprived of minimum lawful facilities in jail. "The government has convicted our leader [Khaleda] unfairly by completely politicizing the judiciary. They're now depriving her of minimum lawful facilities in jail," he said. The BNP leader came up with the allegation while speaking at a human chain arranged, to demand Khaleda’s release, by Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal in front of the National Press Club. Fakhrul said: "She [Khaleda] has been kept in solitary confinement in jail which is a violation the country's existing law." Mentioning that Khaleda Zia and democracy are “interlinked,” he called upon people to put in their best efforts to free her from jail. "Let's be vocal about demanding her release. We must force the government to free her from jail through a movement." Fakhrul said the government fears Khaleda and that is why it has sent her to jail in a “false and fabricated” case to implement its evil design over the next general election. He also criticized the government for what he called “its failure to check repeated question paper leakage, scams in the finical sector and soaring prices of essentials.” To get rid of the current situation of the country and “misrule,” the BNP secretary general said a pro-people government must be established through a fair and credible election under a non-party election-time administration. "It's the responsibility of all patriots and democracy-loving people to get united to remove the current fascist regime. Democracy must be restored in the country through holding a neutral election under an impartial government," he observed. Fakhrul said the government is repressing and arresting innocent BNP leaders and activists, but not taking any action against those ruling party men who have looted banks, the share market and indulged in widespread corruption. Several hundred leaders and activists of Mohila Dal, BNP's women wing, joined the human chain programme. They chanted various slogans demanding Khaleda's release.