Staff Reporter:
BNP has taken preparations to form human chains across the country, including in the capital, on Sunday (10 December), together with the family members of victims of enforced disappearance and political killings, marking the international Human Rights Day.
Speaking at a virtual press briefing on Friday, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi talked about the party’s preparation for making the programme a success on Sunday.
In the capital, he said they will form a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club at 11am. “BNP’s Dhaka city units – North and South – have taken all necessary preparations in this regard,” claimed Rizvi.
Besides, the BNP leader said that all of their party’s district units are going to replicate the programme on the same day at the same time to highlight the issue of human rights violations in Bangladesh.
He warned if the government tries to create obstacles in holding the programme, their party’s leaders and workers will have no choice but to put up resistance.
Rizvi said they want to observe the programme successfully as a symbol of protest against injustice.
He called upon the leaders and activists of BNP at all levels and the family members of those who were subjected to enforced disappearance and political and extrajudicial killings to spontaneously take part in the human chains across the country, including in Dhaka.
He thanked opposition leaders and workers for observing their 48-hour blocked programme that ended at 6am on Friday to realise their demand for holding the 12th parliamentary election under a nonparty caretaker government.
BNP observed blockades in 10 phases and hartals in three phases since the party’s October 28 grand rally at Nayapaltan in the capital was foiled by police.
Rizvi said humanity and human rights have no value to the ‘authoritarian’ Awami League government.
“The Awami government has now turned into a despotic regime to retain power…They want the country’s people to forget the truth and they want to remove the truth from the society. They’re also trying to eliminate justice from the country,” he said
The BNP leader also said the government has created a situation where speaking the truth and talking about human rights or a peaceful inclusive election are considered the greatest crimes.
He said the government is trying to suppress the opposition leaders and activists, as well as civil society in general, by resorting to brutal repression, creating an awful situation in the country.
Rizvi claimed that the police have arrested more than 215 BNP leaders and activists in the last 24 hours of 5pm on Friday.
He also said till now some 20,490 leaders and activists of their party have been arrested or detained, since October 28.
