BNP leaders' mass arrest was pre-planned and that became clear through the speech of Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said on Monday.
"Finally, the influential minister spilled the beans and acknowledged that the country's court, law-enforcing agency, administration, verdicts-everything is captured by the Awami government," he said.
The BNP leader came up with the remark while addressing a virtual press briefing on Monday afternoon, referring to Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzak's interview on a private channel on Sunday. Mr Rizvi also said the Awami League leader acknowledged that around 20,000 of the BNP leaders and activists had been detained mainly to facilitate the polling of shared elections.
"...This acknowledgement testifies that the ongoing violence, false cases, arrests, murder, and arson vandalism by the police against opposition parties, including BNP, since last October, said Mr Rizvi.
He also criticised former Indian foreign minister MJ Akbar's speech in Dhaka on Sunday where he lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the country's democratic situation. "How could a wise journalist and politician like MJ Akbar speak for the dictatorship?" asked Mr Rizvi.
In the briefing, Mr Rizvi also urged the country's people to observe Tuesday's dawn-to-dusk strike.
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