A number of BNP leaders have presented different figures of what they called “arrested party activists” who came to Dhaka to join the party’s July 28 grand rally, claimed a post from Awami League’s verified Facebook page.
While a BNP press release said 200 activists were arrested, BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi put the figure at 500. Such a discrepancy raises questions over the veracity and legitimacy of the claims, said the post on the AL Facebook page. It also said, “Despite such claims, none of the leaders presented any list containing names and details of those arrested.”
“It seems no evidence is required to take a dig at the government. Slapping wholesale assertions has become a part of BNP’s politics,” said the post.
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The post also cited a media report, published on February 5, 2006, which stated that as many as 8,000 activists were rounded up in the capital by police during the BNP-Jamaat regime, ahead of the scheduled long march arranged by then opposition Awami League.
“Ahead of the long march, over 8,000 leaders were arrested, even innocent public not spared,” reads the report revealing the agonizing wait of a woman with a 10-month-old, as police picked up her husband who came to Dhaka to attend a wedding a day before the scheduled rally.
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“But back then there was no scope to raise voice against such wholesale arrests without any warrant,” added the post.
“Putting AL leaders and activists in prison had been a tool for the BNP-Jamaat led government that ruled the country between 2001 and 2006,” it said.
The post also cited a media statement by Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq who rejected the BNP leaders’ claims and clarified that the recent arrestees have warrants against them, and the drive is part of routine work to bring fugitives to justice.