Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Sunday said as parliament members the privileges of BNP leaders Moudud Ahmed and MK Anwar have not been contravened due to their arrest.
He said: “The Speaker of the parliament has been informed about their arrest within due time as per the Members of the Parliament (Remuneration and Privileges) Act.”
The minister made the statement while replying to a query from journalists outside of his ministry office on Sunday.
Mentioning that nobody should be given any privileges above the law, even though they are lawmakers, MK Alamgir said: “They have been arrested because of their involvements with criminal offenses like instigation of looting houses, torching vehicles and killing people.”
BNP lawmakers and standing committee members, Moudud Ahmed and MK Anwar, were arrested on Friday while they were going home after attending a programme at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka.
Replying to the question of whether the arrest of the BNP leaders will interrupt the dialogue process, the minister said: “As part of a democratic government, the prime minister had invited them to discuss their proposal. But, if anybody thinks that they will not be brought under trial for committing criminal offenses, they are wrong. Nobody should be given place above the law.
There is no relation between dialogue and arrest. Those are separate issues. The door of dialogue is still open,” he added.
