The BNP has called upon global human rights groups to probe incidents of its leaders and activists going missing in large numbers.
Published : 22 Jan 2014, 01:58 PM
It blamed the government for extra judicial killings and large scale abductions to suppress the BNP and its allies.
The party's acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claims that 187 supporters of the BNP have gone missing in the last 3 months while 227 have been killed.
Fakhrul told a media briefing on Wednesday that the ruling party has 'lied' regarding Khaleda Zia's speech on the raid by security forces in Satkhira.
"The government has taken up the politics of vengeance by killing and kidnapping opposition supporters. Human rights violations are dangerously mounting across Bangladesh.
"I ask the government to stop these kidnappings, assassination, murders and torture. We want a neutral probe of the abductions. We think the international human rights organisations should come forward to investigate these cases," Fakhrul told the briefing at the Naya Paltan party headquarters.
This is Fakhrul’s first press conference at the Naya Paltan headquarters which had remained closed for around two months before the Jan 5 elections.
The police had thrown a huge cordon around it and prevented party leaders and supporters from going in.
Fakhrul claimed that 187 people have been 'abducted and were missing' in 6 divisions in the last 3 months.
According to him, 101 BNP activists were killed in Chittagong, 3 in Sylhet, 40 in Rajshahi, 50 in Khulna, 5 in Barisal, 13 in Dhaka and 15 in Rangpur division in the same time.
Fakhrul also said that a total of 294 supporters of the 18-Party alliance have been killed during the same time in clashes and raids by security forces.
The BNP leader claimed at least 10 died in extra-judicial killings in the last 10 days.