The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday claimed that at least 2,000 leaders and activists of their party and other opposition parties as well were arrested in the past few days during the ongoing student protest demanding quota reform in government jobs.
鈥榃e are not getting real information about the way the government suppressed and massacred the quota reform activists, shut down the internet and imposed a curfew. Hundreds of people were killed. The government is giving misleading information suppressing the actual information about the injured and the dead,鈥� Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a press conference at the party chairperson鈥檚 office in Gulshan.
鈥榃e don鈥檛 have complete information now. Our party office has been cordoned off with crime scene tape. Law enforcement agencies raided the office in the name of operation. We can鈥檛 work. According to my knowledge, 2,000 activists have been arrested so far,鈥� he said.
Criticising the government statement that accused the main opposition party of being associated with sabotage, Fakhrul said that the government had deliberately done this to divert public attention from the main problems of the country.
He also condemned the government officials鈥� remarks involving party鈥檚 acting chairman Traique Rahman in the vandalism during the student protest.
鈥楾he government did not interact with the quota agitators and other stakeholders. This situation would not have arisen had the government talked to the stakeholders,鈥� he said, adding that the judgment which the government had brought through the court could have been brought earlier. It would not be resolved without a political solution, he said.
Fakhrul further said that the fact of the government repression became clear to the international community also.
He demanded immediate withdrawal of curfew.
鈥榃e have been saying since the first day that we want the curfew to withdraw. Curfew must be withdrawn in the interest of restoring peace in public life,鈥� he said.