The BNP has come up with yet another figure of party leaders and activists who, it claims, have been killed and abducted across the country in the past one year, bringing down the numbers from its previous claims.
The party now says a total of 272 leaders and activists have been killed and 25 abducted between January last year and this February.
At a press conference on February 5, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia first claimed that 300 party men had been either killed or abducted “in one month” from December 26 last year to January 27 this year.
In a statement a few days later, the BNP chief cited media statistics, saying 276 opposition leaders and activists had been killed, 34 had been victims to extrajudicial killings following detention, and 29,262 others had been arrested since the then BNP-led opposition started its movement against the January 5 national election.
BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday came up with the latest figures at a programme in the capital. The acting secretary general of the party alleged that the government was committing crimes against humanity through the killings, abductions and repression of BNP-led alliance’s leaders and activists throughout the country.
“The killings, abductions and repression will not stop unless they [the government] are ousted from power,” Fakhrul said at the programme protesting cases filed against Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and the “killings and repression” on BNP men across the country.
“A total of 272 opposition leaders have been killed and 25 abducted throughout the country since January last year until February this year.
“As if this was the medieval age. They want to destroy nationalism, independence and sovereignty of the country,” Fakhrul said.
He alleged that the government was filing cases against BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman exploiting the Anti-Corruption Commission.
“Some foreign friends donated money to the BNP and our chairperson decided to utilise it for orphanages. The money is still in the account. The case is completely false,” he said.
Fakhrul criticised the government for implicating Tarique in the August 21 grenade attack case and alleged that the investigation officer of the case had been changed “to implicate Tarique.”
He called upon party activists and supporters to unite and wage a movement against the government.