BNP has alleged that an “absurd and false” case has been filed against its top leaders, including Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
"The government plans to hold a one-sided general election without people's participation. Filing of such cases against our senior leaders, we think, is the first step towards implementing their plan," BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Tuesday, reports UNB.
He said the government had turned vindictive following BNP's public rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Sunday.
"After mass arrests of BNP leaders and activists from the rally, the government has now filed an absurd case against our senior leaders," he added.
He said the case filed at Hatirjheel police station had “falsely charged” 55 BNP leaders for obstructing police duty and instigating “subversive acts.”
The accused leaders include Mirza Fakhrul, the party’s National Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, among others.
"The government is using brutal repressive acts as its weapons to suppress BNP leaders and activists. The government has repeatedly been doing this even after knowing that its fall is certain," Rizvi added.
On behalf of the BNP leadership, he strongly protested and condemned the filing of the case and demanded its immediate withdrawal.
He alleged that police, at the behest of the government, were always arresting BNP leaders and activists on fabricated charges and implicating them in cases.
The senior BNP leader on Tuesday also criticised the prime minister's ICT affairs adviser, Sajeeb Ahemd Wazed Joy, for questioning the ethics of the Editors' Council as they raised their voice against the recently passed Digital Security Act.
He said the act, which was passed in parliament on September 19 with stiff penalties for a wide variety of cyber infractions, was enacted to gag the media and take away the people's freedom of speech.
Since the act’s passage, journalists and rights activists have also been saying that it would quash freedom of speech, especially on social media.
The Editors’ Council and several media organizations have objected to a number of sections of the new law they say would curb freedom of expression and threaten responsible and independent journalism.
