Ehsanul Haque Jasim :As the municipality election is closed at hand, the aspirant mayor candidates of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are in fear of arrest and harassment. The chairman candidates in the Union Parishad election are also in fear of arrest, as the election will begin in March next year. Several aspirant mayor and chairman candidates told The New Nation on Sunday that they are under surveillance of the law enforcers, and they could not come out in the field due to repressive acts of the government. Following beginning of the ongoing `special drive` of the joint-force, some of the aspirant candidates have already been arrested and they are now facing detention. AKM Oliullah, an aspirant mayor candidate in the upcoming Kanaighat Municipal polls, on Sunday said he has been staying in Sylhet city, as he could not go to Kanaighat due to fear of arrest. Leaders and activists of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami said that their parties’ men are in arrest panic due to the countrywide drives of the joint-force. They are not staying home in night to avoid arrest and harassment. The aspirant candidates are the main target of the joint-force, they said. Nearly 10,000 BNP-Jamaat men were arrested across the country in the last few days during the drives ahead of the municipality polls likely to be held in the third week of December. Some said that, the ruling Awami League have already begun campaign to get their potential nominees win, while the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and activists are on the run. It was alleged from the central BNP that the government has launched the fresh arrest drive against its leaders and activists in a bid to hinder the party’s re-organisation across the country. BNP’s spokesperson Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon told The New Nation that the government has launched the fresh drive to curb the activities of the opposition parties ahead of the municipality elections. The government wants to hold upcoming local election under party symbol unilaterally, by arresting the opposition leaders and activists, he alleged.Addressing a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office on Sunday, Dr Ripon said that an inhuman disaster might hit the country’s jails, as the government continues the mass-arrest of opposition leaders and activists. Prisoners are being kept in jails beyond the capacity, he claimed.He also claimed that the law enforcers arrested over 500 of their leaders and activists from Rangpur, Chuadanga, Satkhira, Chittagong, Narsingdi, Gazipur, Chapainawabganj, Jhenidah and Noakhali on Saturday. Jamaat-e-Islami also claimed that their several hundred leaders and workers were arrested during the time. “We think the government has indulged in a suicidal game to destroy the opposition and parliamentary politics and democracy, and the consequence will not be good. So, we call upon the government to refrain from it,” said Dr Ripon.
