Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday accused the government of enacting new laws to cracking down the media and people’s voice.
“The government has formulated new laws with a provision for life sentence and a fine of Tk 1 crore as punishment. Their target is clear that no one will be able to speak up against the government,” he said.
Mirza Fakhrul said it while speaking at a discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity. Bangla daily Amar Desh Family arranged the programme protesting the shutting down of 30 web portals along with Amar Desh website and demanding the release of its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
The BNP leader said, “The last days of our (politicians) lives may be wasted in jail. We have to be there in jail for 250-260 years if we’re given punishment 5-10 years on average in the cases filed against us. But, you have to turn around. Fakhrul said with frustration that journalists could not register any strong protest against the closure of so many media outlets and the arrest of newsmen.
He demanded that the government should reopen the media houses and release the arrested journalists.
The BNP leader urged the journalist community to play a bigger role in ‘restoring’ democracy, people’s ‘lost’ rights and save them from the current ‘suffocating’ situation.
Fakhrul also expressed frustration over preconditions by different political parties on BNP’s call on forging national unity. He said the BNP has denied permission by the authorities concerned for holding a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on August 31, saying no rally can be arranged in this month. Accusing the government of arresting BNP leaders and activists across the country in the name of drive against militants, he said a brisk business is going on by law enforcers over arrest.
He alleged that police arrested a BNP activist from Mirpur in connection with Kalyanpur incident where nine militants were killed and demanded Tk 15 lakh from him to get relieved of militant case. “He was later sent to jail in another case after realising Tk 5 lakh,” he said. He also turned emotional while narrating the sufferings and plights of the party leaders and activists now undergoing across the country.
Journalist leaders Ruhul Amin Gazi, M Abdullah, Abdul Hye Sikdar and Jahangir Alam Prodhan, were present, among others, in the programme.
