Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
BNP on Wednesday submitted a list of 1046 ‘fictitious cases’ filed against its leaders and activists to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Taiful Islam Tipu, BNP Assistant Office Secretary, said that the list signed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, was submitted to the PMO at 11:00 am on Wednesday. PM’s Personal Secretary Abdur Rahim received it.
He said that it was a partial list to be followed by more.
The BNP submitted a copy of the said list to the Awami League (AL) President’s Dhanmondi office at 11:15 am on Wednesday.
Office Assistant Shamim Ahmed received the list, said Tipu.
In a letter attached with the list, BNP has requested stopping of arrest and harassment of their leaders and activists in ‘false’ and ‘fictitious’ cases and withdrawal of those cases, according to him. On November 1, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the BNP leaders to submit a list of its arrested leaders and activists when she was addressing in the dialogue with Dr Kamal Hosain led Jatiya Oikyafront on November 1.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed that at least 25 lakh BNP men were accused in 4371 ‘ghost cases’ in September.
Another BNP sources said that plaintiffs filed cases accusing 96,700 people mentioning their names with 3,70,000 unknown accused. At last 5,274 accused are still in jail.
However, Rizvi Ahmed said that the practice has reached “alarming” levels since party Chairperson Khaleda Zia was jailed in February 2018. They say that new cases are being lodged “every single day” against BNP men, with names altered or unnamed accused seemingly at the whims of the police.
Leaders and activists of the BNP and its several wings had contained a hope that the government would take action as per list that submitted to the PMO and AL office, he told the media.
He also said that the BNP submitted the list of the partial list of the accused to get green signal for the exemption of the accused.
“Police will take action against anyone plotting subversive activities or creating anarchy across the country in the name of protests,” Inspector General of Bangladesh Police Dr Md Javed Patwari said at an event recently.
Against the backdrop of the BNP claim about police harassment, the IGP said there is no relation between the arrests and the election.
He said: “The arrests are not made against the leaders or activists of any particular party. Only those who face cases or warrants are arrested. They are not arrested based on their political identities.”
