Human chain permission denied fearing it will expose govt: Fakhrul

The government has not allowed the BNP to organise a ‘peaceful’ human chain programme fearing that its “misdeeds of enforced disappearances and killings” will be unmasked, a senior party leader has alleged.

BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press conference on Saturday said his party would hold the same programme on Sept 2 in Dhaka.

He alleged the “illegal government” adopted enforced disappearance as a “despicable tool” to repress the opposition and the people.

Countries around the world are observing the ‘International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearance’ on Aug 30.

The UN General Assembly in 2011 urged every country to observe this day.

Fakhrul claimed incidents of enforced disappearances had become “common” in Bangladesh.

The BNP-led 20-Party Alliance on Aug 24 announced to organise a human chain across all metropolitan cities in the country to mark the day.

“Police did not grant us permission [for the programme] as the government feared it wouldn’t be able to hide its misdeeds from the world,” Fakhrul alleged.

He claimed 310 activists of his party had been killed over the past year.

“Twenty-five [BNP activists] have been forced into disappearance from January 2013 to till date.

“Since this government came to power, 32 people, including BNP’s Organising Secretary Ilias Ali, have gone missing.”

The BNP leader criticised police’s decision of not allowing them to organise the programme.

Fakhrul claimed the law-enforcing agencies were acting like an affiliate of the ruling party as the government was appointing ruling party activists to the agencies.

“There is no rule of law here. It’s just a carnival of the Awami League’s wild rule,” the BNP spokesperson said.