The case filing spree that resumes after about three years’ gap is making BNP leaders rethink strategies as they fear the days before the national elections will not be smooth for them. Before this, several hundred cases were filed against the party men between 2013 and 2015. And charge-sheets were submitted against senior BNP leaders in a number of cases, reports a local daily.
The government has started implicating the BNP top brass again this year not only to weaken the party before the polls but also to provoke it into resorting to violence, the leaders alleged. But the BNP high-ups want to move ahead defying all obstacles without walking into the trap, they added. More than a dozen cases were filed against senior BNP leaders on Monday, a day after the party high-ups asked its activists and supporters to prepare for both polls and movement from a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan.
While BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is in jail on graft charges, other top leaders including standing committee members, joint and organising secretaries now remain burdened with cases. Mirza Fakhrul said the government filed as many as 4,098 cases against nearly 300,000 BNP men and arrested at least 4,300 activists in September alone. Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, one of the organising secretaries facing 107 cases now, said the government is filing false cases one after another as it has become desperate towards the end of its tenure.
Using police to file fictitious cases to arrest BNP leaders and activists, and implicate them in cases is a wrong way to use the security forces. The administration can file hundreds of cases, but the cases must be of reasonable merit. The average person will only understand too well when cases are being filed due to politics against an individual. Filing of so many cases can easily backfire as it could easily promote sympathy among the electorate who may think that opposition parties are being needlessly harassed.
It is the time to stop using police politically to remain in power without popular vote. Denying people of their right to vote and choose government is treason being violation of the Constitution. Using police power is no political leadership or popularity. The government should not be too sure of police power for remaining in power. This time the government will be wise to think of how resentful and angry the people are for ignoring the people.
