BNP on Thursday urged Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun to take steps for withdrawing the fresh ‘fictitious’ cases filed by police against the party leaders and activists.
A four-member BNP delegation, led by led by party Vice Chairman Barkatullah Bulu, met the IGP at the Police Headquarters and also handed him over a letter from BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in this regard.
The delegation went to the Police Headquarters around 12:50 pm and had an hour-long meeting with the IGP over the fresh cases against the party leaders and activists and the party’s planned rally on December 10 in the capital.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Bulu said fictitious cases are being filed against BNP leaders and followers by police and ruling party activists after hurling crude bombs. “Our people are being arrested in fictitious cases. So, we, on behalf of our secretary general, submitted a memorandum to the IGP in this regard.”
He said they also told the IGP that BNP leaders and workers are being harassed and their houses are being raided to arrest them in fictitious cases. “We’ve sought a remedy for this and he assured us of looking into the matters.”
The BNP leader said their party’s 50 leaders and workers were arrested from the High Court gate though they obtained bail from the apex court.
Read more: December-10 rally: BNP delegation sits with IGP
He said a ‘fictitious’ case was filed in Narsingdi against BNP men accusing them of exploding crude bombs chanting slogans in the name of Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and urging people to come to BNP’s Dhaka rally. “Why should we explode bombs when we invite people to come to Dhaka?”
With the letter of the BNP Secretary General, Bulu said, a list of 169 fictitious cases--filed in between August 22 and November 26 against 6,723 identified and 15,050 unidentified people-- were given to the IGP.
Besides, he said a list of 559 arrested BNP leaders and activists was also submitted to the police boss.
About BNP’s December 10 rally, he said the police officials raised the issue of the rally. “We’ve said we want to hold it (meeting) at Nayapaltan. We sent two letters (to DMP) on November 13 and November 20 seeking Nayapaltan for our meeting venue. We didn't want any second venue.”
He said the police authorities urged them to arrange the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan promising them to extend all-out support in this regard. “We said it is not our issue today…Our standing committee and the secretary general will take a decision on it.”
The other delegation members were BNP Joint Secretary General Sayed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Publicity Secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie and Legal Affairs Secretary Kaiser Kamal.
High police officials, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq, were also present at the meeting.
Read more: BNP to avoid AL's trap over December-10 rally: Gayeshwar
Earlier on Tuesday, the DMP permitted BNP to hold its rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on December 10 on 26 conditions.
However, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday urged the government to necessary take steps so that their party can hold the rally at Nayapaltan instead of Suhrawardy Udyan on the day.