Staff Reporter :
The BNP on Saturday alleged that police continued raiding the houses of the party men and its allies, arresting and threatening them in the polls bound Rajshahi, Barishal and Sylhet cities creating a sense of panic and insecurity among the voters.
“Members of the law enforcing agencies had launched aggressive attacks on the houses of BNP-led alliance leaders and activists since the electioneering began. Arrest of leaders and supporters of the opposition as per lists is continuing. It creates panic and insecurity among the voters,” said BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press briefing at the party’s central office.
The polls in the three city corporations is scheduled to be held on July 30 (Monday).
He said, “The police arrested about 30 leaders and activists of BNP and its front organisations in Barishal city since Thursday night, disobeying the High Court directive. The Election Commission and the police at the directive of the government had been working to hold one-sided polls in the three cities.”
The BNP leader also said that the police raided the houses of BNP leaders and activists in Barishal city corporation areas all night long on Friday and threatened their family members that they were not to be seen before August 2.
“There were allegations that thousands of hired men were brought to the Rajshahi city to forcibly help the candidate of boat and to threat the BNP men,” he said.
He said several hundred BNP leaders and activists in Sylhet city have had to flee their houses following the filing of cases and arrest threats against them.”The ruling quarter is hatching conspiracy over the mayoral elections in Rajshahi, Barishal and Sylhet and inventing new models of vote terrorism and rigging,” Rizvi said.
The ‘non-stop police harassment’ creates huge suffering for the family members of the alliance. The police was not shedding light on the whereabouts of the arrested leaders and activists, he added.
The BNP leader accused the government of resorting to a new tactic of evacuating voters and polling agents of the opposition parties in three city polls, ‘just like they had done in the latest polls in Gazipur and Khulna cities’.
He also alleged that the Election Commission is playing the role of a silent spectator in the three cities.
“It (EC) had also backtracked from its previous stance that no one could be arrested without warrants in polls areas during the election period,” he said.
