The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday said that law enforcement agencies were arresting the students who took part in the quota reform student movement in a wholesale manner without taking any steps against members of security forces who shot at students openly.
鈥楾he government is consistently arresting and torturing quota reform activists even after promising that the students would not be harassed. Whereas, not a single law enforcer and those who openly killed students by shooting them in the chest have been arrested yet,鈥� BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a statement.
Fakhrul alleged that the government was operating a double standard regarding the quota reform movement in that, on one hand, it was saying innocent students and quota reform leaders would not be tortured, while on the other hand, general students were being arrested and tortured.
He said that quota reform activists were being arrested聽 while law enforcers or those who openly shot at and killed students had not yet been brought to book.
Ordinary people, children with disabilities and even employees of different organisations are not spared from such inhumane activities, he said, demanding immediate resignation of the government.
鈥楾he people of the country will form a mass resistance,鈥� he said.
He called on the government to withdraw false cases filed against all BNP and opposition leaders and students arrested so far.
He urged the government to stop torturing students and opposition people by placing them on remand and ensure their immediate and unconditional release.
He said that more than 9,000 leaders and activists of the BNP and other opposition parties and general students had been arrested across the country.
鈥楨ven though the arrested former lawmakers, ministers and senior leaders of BNP are sick, they are being tortured in remand for five to seven days like banned extremists,鈥� he said.
He also alleged that police and plain-clothes law enforcers were caring out attacks on business entities of opposition people.
Besides, in a separate statement, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, alleged that its leaders and activists who were arrested following the student movement were being tortured in remand.
