The government wants to eliminate the opposition party through intimidation, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said.

He made the remark at a press conference held at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon. BNP organized the press conference to announce the decisions of its standing committee members’ meeting held virtually on April 4.

BNP leaders expressed their deep shock at the fire in Dhaka’s Bangabazar Market, said Fakhrul adding that “The meeting opined that terrible accidents are taking place repeatedly as no impartial investigation to such fire incident was done. Common people have to accept the dire consequences due to the indifference, incompetence, corruption and lack of accountability of the concerned departments of the government.”

Failure of this unelected government has led to anarchy in the country as a whole, said Fakhrul.

BNP leaders in the meeting demanded appropriate compensation to the traders affected by the fire in Bangabazar and other places.

About a documentary of Deutsche Welle, the BNP secretary general said the standing committee thinks that this documentary proved that the unelected government wanted to stay in power illegally by using law enforcement agencies.

BNP standing committee has strongly demanded all activities against the constitution and human rights be stopped immediately, he said.

The BNP leaders think that this documentary proved that the unelected government wanted to stay in power illegally by using law enforcement agencies, said Fakhrul.

The party condemned extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by the RAB men and demanded the government step down for breaching the constitution and human rights, he said.

Fakhrul said, “The meeting strongly condemned and protested the shrinking of freedom of expression, freedom of press and the cases filed against the journalists and citizens under Digital Security Act. It was also decided to make public opinion against the harassment of daily Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, Jaijaidin editor Shafiq Rehman, Sangram editor Abul Asad, Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman, and other journalists.”

Fakhrul said the BNP standing committee demanded the abolition of DSA immediately.

The party’s standing committee members Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Zamir Uddin Sircar, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed, Begum Selima Rahman, and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku were present at the meeting.