Published : 12 Mar 2013, 12:46 PM
BNP’s Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday implored the government to stand down ‘on moral grounds’ and transfer power to non-partisan people.
He also said the party’s decision to enforce countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Mar 18 and 19 would stand if all the party leaders and activists detained from the BNP headquarters during Monday’s police raid were not released by Thursday.
He also demanded withdrawal of all the cases filed against the detained leaders and activists.
The BNP spokesman was speaking at a press conference at Naya Paltan central office in the afternoon after his release.
After the press conference, a Dhaka court sent to jail over 150 BNP leaders and activists, including BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and the party’s Publicity Secretary and Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque in two arson cases filed in connection with Monday’s explosions of crude bombs in front of the BNP office and clashes with police.
Earlier, three top BNP leaders – Fakhrul, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and Sadeque Hossain Khoka – were released after overnight detention.
After BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia met with her party’s Standing Committee in the wake of the police raid, the party had said that it would enforce a 48-hour shutdown from Mar 18 if its leaders and activists detained were not released.
Asked whether the three leaders were freed as part of an understanding, Fakhrul said: “It’s not right.”
“We would like to make it clear that we’re yet to get any formal or informal proposal from the government for talks. The understanding that you’re hinting at isn’t right.”
“The government is deliberately throwing the country into anarchy to hold the national election under the partisan government by excluding the opposition party.”
Protesting Monday’s police raid at the BNP office, Fakhrul said: “A tornado swept through the BNP office. The government will have to pay a high price for the (police) action.”
The BNP leader alleged that the law enforcers during their raid took away important documents of the party’s council and huge amount of cash allocated for holding it kept in a trunk. Legal measures were being taken in this regard, he said.
Police during the raid seized a trunk and computer hard disks from the BNP office.
A rally of the BNP-led 18-Party Alliance plunged into chaos and it called a countrywide daylong shutdown for Tuesday following explosions of several crude bombs near its central office.
The party called the shutdown protesting attacks on its ‘peaceful rally by police and the ruling party cadres’. But the police claimed the BNP itself foiled the rally by exploding crude bombs for an excuse to call a shutdown.
Within an hour of the shutdown call, the police stormed into the BNP office.
Sporadic clashes, bomb blasts and vandalism of vehicles by pickets marked Tuesday’s countrywide lockdown.
Claiming that the strike was observed spontaneously across the country, Fakhrul said: “The people have expressed their no-confidence in the government through it. They’ve no moral rights now to stay in power.”
He claimed that over 200 BNP leaders and activists were arrested across the country during the strike.
Fakhrul said organisational activities at the party office were being hampered due to the arrest of Rizvi and vandalism in the party office.