BNP on Monday expressed concern that many jailed BNP leaders and activists have been pushed towards death because of alleged torture and substandard food supplied to them.

“The active leaders and workers of the opposition party being subjected to various inhumane torture and attitude inside and outside the prison to suppress them. Prisoners are being tortured indescribably and brutally,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Also read: Bangladesh is number one in the world in terms of human rights violation: BNP

Speaking at a virtual press briefing, he also said the imprisoned opposition leaders and workers are being killed by depriving them of treatment. “The sick prisoners are being left in prisons with chains on their hands and feet instead of sending them to hospitals.”

The BNP leader also said the jailed BNP leaders and activists are being locked up day and night in suffocating cells in prisons.

“They’re being made sick and pushed to death with very poor quality food…after the death of prisoners, the government and law enforcement agencies are making up stories to avoid responsibility.”

Rizvi warned that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the prison officials will not be able to avoid the responsibility for deaths in jail custody. They  must face trial for every death and killing.”

He also described how the government is oppressing and jailing the BNP leaders and activists by citing a recent report of the British newspaper Guardian titled ‘Full prison and false charges: Bangladesh opposition faces pre-election crackdown’.

Also read: BNP leaders face extreme human rights violation in jails: Rizvi

The BNP leader said though the country's 68 prisons have a capacity of accommodating less than 43,000 inmates, there are now about 88,000 prisoners in those jails. 

“The illegal usurper regime has turned the entire country into a hell to cling to power. There is no safety of people anywhere outside their homes…the people of the country are living their days in fear of the unknown fear,” he said.

Rizvi said the jails have become death valleys, and the prisons have been turned into Sheikh Hasina's gas chambers like Hitler's gas chambers.

“Each of the 68 prisons in the country is like a torture cell where political prisoners fear death every moment. Healthy leaders and workers are tortured and thrown in jail in false and fictitious cases and are coming out as corpses,” he said.

Refereeing to a media report, the BNP leader said around 100 people, including BNP leaders and workers, died in jail custody this year.

Rizvi slammed the government for its failure to control the commodity prices, saying anarchy is going on in the country over the prices of onion, garlic, lentils and rice.

Also read: BNP to form human chains on Dec 10 in protest against injustice: Rizvi

He said traders are fixing the prices of the goods as per their wish ignoring all rules and regulations as there is no monitoring by the government authorities. "Had the government required the votes of the people, it would not have left control of the market in the hands of its party’s businessmen."