Fakhrul questions where did this Chinese rifle come from

Accusing a police officer of firing illegally at their party’s programme in Narayanganj on Thursday with a Chines Rifle, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday demanded a probe into the matter to punish the offender.

“We would like to know why police fired at a peaceful programme in Narayanganj marking our party’s founding anniversary. Journalists have unveiled that a Narayanganj police officer opened fire on our rally, I thank journalists for that,” he said.

Showing a photo published in a newspaper, the BNP leader said Kanak, a Sub-inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of police, opened fire with a Chinese Rifle though he did not have jurisdiction to use such a firearm.

“So, where did this Chinese rifle come from? What order has prompted him to shoot my brother dead? From this meeting, we demand that an investigation be carried out into the firing with a Chinese Rifle at a political programme and the responsible person must be punished by bringing him to justice. If you don’t do this we won’t sit idle,” he said.

Fakhrul made the remarks while speaking at a rally in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office protesting the killing of a Jubo Dal activist Shaon Pradhan at the Narayanganj rally on Saturday.

The BNP leader said Narayanganj police superintendent and ruling party leaders have been repeatedly saying slain Shaon was only a welding worker at a factory, not a Jubo Dal activist.

Fakhrul posed the question: “Even if he was not a political element, who gave this government and police the authority to shoot someone dead for no reason?”

Referring to his Friday visit to Shaon’s Narayanganj house, Fakhrul in an emotion-choked voice said, “His mother said my son told me that he would eat after returning from the programme. But he didn’t get to return and eat. Can you tell us how to answer her? What will Hasina answer? Hasina must answer who is responsible for the murder of this young man.”

Stating that their party filed cases in Bhola for the murder of Abdur Rahim and Noor-e-Alam earlier in August, he said they will do the same in Narayanganj for the killing of Shaon. “We’ll file cases whenever you violate the law, torture and attack my brothers illegally. You may think what will happen with the cases when this government is in power? Cases have consequences, as you see your police chief (IGP) went to the USA with conditions.”

The BNP leader warned that those who are indulging in oppression and human rights violations in today’s world are not spared.

He said Awami League has destroyed all state institutions, including the judiciary, administration and parliament while they have established control on the media. “They’re doing all the misdeeds only to hang on to power. They destroyed our election system in a planned way by annulling the caretaker government system.”

Fakhrul alleged that the ruling party has been making all sorts of efforts to retain power by holding another stage-managed election, as in 2014 and 2018.

“They again resumed suppressive acts like firing bullets and attacking rallies so that opposition parties can’t exercise their rights as enshrined in the constitution, so that people get deprived of their justified rights,” the BNP leader said.

Fakhrul said the government has killed three leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies and filed ‘false and fictitious’ cases against around 20,000 leaders and activists during their ongoing movement protesting price hikes of fuel and essentials.

“They want to hold election in an empty field by driving out opposition leaders and activists by tackling and maiming them and implicating them with false and fictitious cases like in the old days,” he alleged.