BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday claimed that two leaders of their party’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal were killed and over 100 others injured in an attack by police when bullets were fired in front of their party’s Nayapaltan central office.
Besides, he said, around 600 BNP leaders and activists, including party's senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Dhaka south city unit convener Abdus Salam and north city unit convene Amanullah Aman, were ‘brutely" arrested from the party office and the Nayapaltan area during a police raid.
Fakhrul, who took position on the footpath in front of the BNP office around 4:40pm after failing to enter the office during a police raid, talked to reporters before leaving the area around 8pm.
The BNP leader was seen sitting on the footpath in front of the BNP office dejectedly while watching helplessly how other party leaders were being arrested from inside the office.
Fakhrul said like any other day, their party leaders and activists gathered at Nayapaltan in front of the party office peacefully. “But a huge number of police attacked them without any provocation. They lobbed teargas shells, charged batons, fired rubber bullets and bullets, killing our two student leaders on the spot.”
He said the two student leaders were pronounced dead when they were taken to the hospital.
However, party sources said only a Chhatra Dal leader was killed and another is still alive till the filing of the story around 9:30pn
Besides, Fakhrul said over 100 BNP leaders and activists were injured in the police action.
Later, he said the different units of law enforcers started raiding the BNP office. “At the same time, I came here and told them I would go to the office. But I was forced to stay here. Then, they entered the office and heinously repressed our leaders and activists and arrested over 600 leaders and activists.”
Fakhrul said during the around five-hour drive they vandalised the CCTVs installed at the office and seized all the computers and important documents of the party.
“The most heinous act they committed was to take some explosives in bags by themselves and keep them inside our office,” he claimed.
The BNP leader said their party is a democratic party which believes in carrying out the movement and holding their programmes peacefully.
Read more: 1 killed in police-BNP clash at Nayapaltan; Over 150 leaders, activists held
He said their party has already held nine divisional rallies in a peaceful manner, ignoring various obstacles and provocation.
Fakhrul said the ruling party leaders and the ministers have started making provocative comments from the very beginning over the Dhaka rally.
He said even the ruling party top leaders threatened to wipe out BNP like Hefajat. “Following these dreadful comments we were fearing that they were making any blueprint to suppress people’s justified, democratic and peaceful movement using the state machinery as they did during 2013 and 2014.”
Terming the police action tragic and awful, the BNP leader said it not only affected BNP but also the people of the entire Bangladesh. “They also attacked democracy as they in a planned way carried out the incident to ruin the process of restoring democratic system and removing fascism.”
Read more: Govt has staged the Nayapaltan clash to foil Dec 10 rally: Mirza Fakhrul
He said the law enforcers ran rampant like the Pakistani invasion force of 1971. “We can’t imagine that any police force in a civilised country can act like that.”
Fakhrul said the police authorities were supposed to give BNP a reply about the permission for their rally venue on Wednesday. “Instead of doing that, they annihilated democracy again with their dangerous, tragic and heinous drive.”
He warned that the country’s people will not accept such repressive and suppressive acts. “They must put up strong resistance and defeat the autocratic and fascist regime.
Replying to a question about whether BNP would hold the rally on December 10 under the evolving situation, Fakhrul said their standing committee sat in a meeting at night. “We’ll let you know the decision of our standing committee’s meeting.”