BNP urged international rights bodies today to investigate what it termed “extra-judicial” killings in the country in recent times.
“The international rights organisations should come forward and probe the matter,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir during a press briefing at the party’s headquarters in Nayapaltan of the capital.
A total of 294 activists of 18-party combine have become the victims of “extra-judicial” killings only in past three months, Fakhrul said quoting media reports.
Of the victims, 227 people are from BNP camp, Fakhrul added.
The number of forced disappearance is 187, he added.
All the killings and forced disappearance occurred during the joint forces drive in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna and Barisal divisions, the BNP leader added quoting the report.
With extra-judicial killings, abductions, false cases against opposition leaders and jailing them, human rights in the country are being severely violated, he said.
Fakhrul termed Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam’s remark on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s speech over Satkhira drive as ‘completely untrue’.
A day after the BNP chief claimed that Indian troops took part in a military operation in Satkhira, Ashraf yesterday termed her statement as “seditious” and “dreadful”.
Khaleda was addressing a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on Sunday.
“I do not know why he said it, in which condition he said it – but he did not tell the truth. He lied,” Fakhrul said replying to a query from reporters.
He further said, “The judges are unable to execute their duties independently- though it is said that they have independence, in the true sense, there is none.”
“The administration and law enforcing agencies are under complete control of the government. The government is using the state machinery to oppress and torture the countrymen. This is our biggest concern,” he claimed.
The government is trying to establish a one-party rule in the country, emulating the infamous BAKSAL, he alleged.
He also likened the government’s closing down of televisions and newspapers and jailing journalists and editors to fascism, saying: “The government is exercising fascism to the truest sense of the term”.
