Leaders of the Ganatantra Mancha and some opposition political parties on Wednesday said that the ruling Awami League government was making arrests of opposition leaders to hide numbers of deaths in atrocities by law enforcers during the agitation of the students demanding quota reforms in government jobs.
The leaders of the parties in a joint statement said that the law enforcers led atrocities to control the peaceful movement of the students and killed at least 163 people, including students, during the agitation and that they used helicopters for firing on the agitating people.
Now the law enforcers are arresting central leaders of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other parties, including Jatiya Dal chairperson Ehsanul Huda, and carrying out repression against them on remand to hide the number of people and students killed during the agitations, the leaders claimed.
They called on the government to stop repression against the students and leaders and activists of the opposition parties and fulfil the nine-point demand of the students immediately.
Signatories to the statement are Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD president ASM Abdur Rob, chief of 12-party Alliance Mostafa Jamal Haider, Nagarik Oikya president Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Revolutionary Workers Party general secretary Saiful Huq, Ganosamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki, Bhashani Onusari Parishad convener Sheikh Rafiqul Islam Bablu, Rastra Sanskar Andolan chief coordinator Hasnat Quaiyum, Gono Forum faction general secretary Subrata Chowdhury, AB Party member secretary Mojibur Rahman Monju, Jatiytabadi Samamana Jote coordinator Fariduzzaman Farhad, Bangladesh LDP secretary general Shahadat Hossain Selim, NDM chairman Bobi Hazzaz, Jatiya Mukti Council secretary Faiezul Hakim, Gono Odhikar Parishad general secretary Mohammad Rashed Khan and Gono Odhikar Parishad faction convener Mia Moshiuzzaman.