Bangladesh is death pit now: Khaleda

After a mass hunger strike by party leaders and workers, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has warned of a tougher agitation to protest against abductions and killings.

‘Ershad killed Zia, Manzur’

These incidents had turned Bangladesh into a ‘death pit’, she said on Sunday.

She alleged that all law enforcement agencies including the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were being made to play a partisan role.

But they would be held accountable for these abductions and murders after the Awami League government was ousted, Khaleda warned.

“There is wailing across the country. Seven people were abducted, killed and dumped in a river in Narayanganj.”

“Bricks had been tied to the bodies to ensure they weren’t found. But even then, the bodies rose to the surface,” she said while addressing a party programme at the National Press Club in the afternoon.

The BNP held a daylong mass hunger strike there in protest against engineered disappearances, murders, and cases against its activists. It has been claiming 310 leaders and activists of the party were either abducted or killed in the past one year.

Khaleda Zia’s remarks were in obvious reference the recent abduction and murder of seven people, including one city corporation councillor, in Narayanganj.

Their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakhya river a few days after they were abducted on Apr 27.

The BNP chief said the perpetrators of these murders were supporters of the ruling Awami League. “They are not being arrested and have remained out of the reach of law because they are supporters of the government.”

She also criticised the police for taking one week to raid the house of Narayanganj city councillor Nur Hossain, who, she said, was an ‘infamous criminal’.

Hossain, the Vice-President of Siddhirganj Awami League unit, is the main accused in the case filed over the murder of the seven people.

Khaleda again termed the incumbent government an illegal one. “The people are seeing what this government has done to the country after coming to power through force.”

All its activities were illegal, the former prime minister added.

“This government has only blood on its hands. Blood will be spilled as long as it is in power,” she said repeating her demand for a fresh national election under a non-party administration.

Addressing the government, she said, “If these abductions and killings don’t stop, we will launch tougher programmes.”

She also urged everyone to be united to protest the ‘repression’.

Khaleda Zia joined the hunger strike in the afternoon. It started at 9am Sunday.