AL’s aim to perpetuate power through ‘climate of fear’: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday alleged the government is working to instill a climate of fear across society, as a means to perpetuate its grip on power, by continuing to arrest opposition leaders and activists and throwing them in jail indefinitely. 

In a statement, the most senior BNP leader active in the country also said the Awami League regime has become even more ‍‍`reckless, authoritarian and oppressive‍‍` after seizing power through what he termed ‍‍`the sham election‍‍` of January 7.

The BNP leader said the ‍‍`usurper‍‍` government has unleashed a wave of repression and persecution against the leaders and activists of BNP and other pro-democratic opposition parties and dissenters to maintain its illegal power.

Fakhrul issued the statement as some leaders of BNP and its associate bodies, including Jubo Dal president Sultan Salauddin Tuku, were sent to jail in different “false, fabricated and politically motivated” cases.   

He said the latest instances of jailing of opposition leaders and activists depict a continuous trend of repression by the Awami League-led government.

“The entire country has been turned into a prison by sending the opposition leaders and activists to jail. Those engaged in the democratic struggle are being deprived of justice; the principles of the rule of law and good governance have vanished from the country,” the BNP leader said.

He also said a totalitarian anarchy has spread in the country. “The illegal regime of the Awami League is spreading panic and intimidation from cities to villages across the nation.”

Fakhrul voiced deep concern over the jailing of opposition leaders and activists throughout the country, even long prison sentences ensured through dictated verdicts in ‘false’ cases.

He demanded the unconditional release of Sultan Salauddin Tuku, as well as other jailed BNP leaders and workers, as well as the withdrawal of the false, fabricated and baseless charges brought against them.