The BNP has claimed that 25,70,547 of its leaders and activists have been implicated in false cases in the last 10 years.
“Between September 1 and October 5, as many as 276,277 people have been accused in 4,149 fictitious cases," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a press briefing on Saturday at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters, reports UNB.
"Around 90,340 false cases have been filed against 25,70,547 people since 2009. This is incredible!” he said, alleging that the government is taking all possible steps to keep the BNP away from the next election.
Collected from official Facebook page of BNP
The upcoming election, scheduled for December, is crucial for the BNP, which boycotted the last parliamentary polls. If the party stays away this time, it will lose its registration with the Election Commission.
He claimed that their chairperson Khaleda Zia has been kept in jail by a 'false' case.
Khaleda, convicted in a corruption case, is serving a five-year jail sentence. The BNP maintains that the case is politically motivated – a charge the government denies.
Fakhrul said that trials in cases filed against senior BNP leaders have been expedited to prevent them from contesting the election.
"The people of the country want a fair election and change of government. For this, a credible election is needed so that all the opposition parties can participate in it," Fakhrul said.
"For creating an election environment, our leader (Khaleda) will have to be freed from jail, all cases filed against our leaders and activists must be withdrawn, and our seven-point demand has to be accepted," he added.