Dhaka, July 27 (UNB) – BNP on Friday alleged that the government has long been engaged in ‘extrajudicial killings’ in the name of anti-narcotic drive to hold another one-party lopsided general election.

“The motive behind the spate of crossfire incidents across the country is to terrorise people and opposition leaders and activists. Some leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies were killed in the motivated drive. No one of them were involved in drug peddling,” said party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, he further said, “They (govt) have restored to crossfire as their only means of staying in power and holding a voter-less unilateral election.”

The BNP leader urged the government to immediately stop the inhuman, cruel and ill-motivated drive.

He alleged that though the government has been carrying out the anti-narcotic drive, it could not take any action against the ‘godfathers of drug like Teknaf MP Abdur Rahman Bodi’.

Rizvi said the ruling party leaders amassed huge wealth by widespread plundering, but the anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is working as a ‘washing machine’ of the government’s corruption.

He said the ACC’s investigation into the allegations of corruption at Barapukuria coalmine is nothing, but eyewash.

The BNP leader alleged that lakhs of tonnes of coal did not disappear without the green signal of the ruling party quarter. “The head of the government can’t avoid the grand scam of disappearing coal,” he added.