Police's surveillance on political activities, body and mobile phone searches of citizens to suppress the opposition and dissent is against democracy and human rights, acording to a statement jointly issued by said 24 eminent citizens on Saturday.
They strongly condemned the government's suppression of the rally organised by the BNP in Dhaka's Golapbagh field earlier in the day.
"The right to assembly is our constitutional fundamental right. We urge the government to refrain from violating these rights. We demand the government to refrain from repression and torture against the leaders and workers of the opposition parties," they said.
They also demanded the immediate release of BNP leaders and activists who have been arrested without proper evidence.
"We believe that the incident of killing one person and injuring many others during the preparatory meeting of BNP, arresting and filing cases against BNP leaders and activists including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and police attack on BNP office are gross violations of the right to freedom of speech and assembly."
The 24 signatories include M Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser of the caretaker government; human rights activist Hameeda Hossain; Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra; Ali Imam Majumder, former cabinet secretary; economist Anu Muhammad; Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyers Shahdeen Malik, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, and Subrata Chowdhury; Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of Shujan; photographer Shahidul Alam; Asif Nazrul, professor of Dhaka University; and human rights activist Nur Khan, among others.
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