Denouncing the detention of its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam, BNP on Sunday alleged that the government did it to scare the people.
The party warned that the government will no longer be able to retain power by resorting to oppression and by killing, and arresting BNP leaders and workers as they are united under the leadership of their acting chairman Tarique Rahman.
In a statement, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also said, “The government has become desperate to hang onto power when the entire nation has burst into anger against it.”
Read: Fakhrul detained, taken to DB office
He said the ‘illegal’ government does not feel safe even after attacking BNP’s rally and firing and killing the opposition leaders and workers in a 'planned way' after seeing the presence of lakhs of people in BNP's programme.
“That’s why Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, one of the top leaders of BNP and the democratic movement, was taken away from his house by law enforcers this morning (Sunday morning). I strongly condemn and protest the arrest of the BNP secretary general and demand his immediate release."
Rizvi expressed deep concern over the arrest of a 75-year-old Fakhrul as he is seriously ill. “BNP leaders are being arrested to scare the people. But the people of the country are now united under the leadership of BNP Acting Chairman Tariq Rahman.”
“I want to say clearly that the law enforcement forces and Awami cadres carried out the attacks on the BNP’s grand rally, shot, killed and indulged in all subversive acts. They’re responsible for this (violence),” he said.
Read: Streets empty, vehicles burnt and vandalised in Dhaka as BNP-Jamaat observe hartal
Earlier in the morning, Detective Branch (DB) of Police raided Fakhrul’s Gulshan-2 house and detained him around 9:25 am, said BNP media wing member Sairul Kabir Khan.
Later, he was taken to the DB’s Mintoo road office, said Faruk Hossain, deputy commissioner (media) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The detention came as the opposition BNP called for a dawn-to-dusk nationwide hartal for Sunday to protest violence centering the party's grand rally at Nayapaltan on Saturday.
Fakhrul announced the shutdown on Saturday after suspending the rally abruptly following violent clashes between law enforcers and opposition activists that killed at least two people, including a police constable and injured several hundred others.
Half an hour after the start of BNP's much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan, the party's leaders and workers locked into a clash with the police at Kakrail. With the passage of time, violent clashes spread around Nayapaltan, forcing the BNP to abruptly call off the rally.