Khaleda Zia being deprived of human rights: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today alleged that their party’s ailing chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, a three-time Prime Minister, is now being deprived of human rights and her minimum right to receive treatment.

BNP’s National Committee on celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the country’s independence arranged the programme at a city hotel marking the International Human Rights Day.

Fakhrul also bemoaned that BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman has been forced to remain in exile by “unfairly’ convicting him in different cases by the current government.

He said human rights have been extremely violated in Bangladesh under the rule of the current government for lack of democracy.

“One thing is very clear that human rights and democracy are complimentary to each other. Without democracy, human rights can never be protected and without human rights democracy can never continue,” he added.

Referring to the statistics of different rights bodies, he said around 607 people were subjected to enforced disappearances while over 1,000 BNP leaders and activists were killed during the rule of the current government.

He said around 35 lakh leaders and activists of BNP have been implicated in many cases. “If you visit Dhaka or district courts you will find 90 percent of the total accused arrive there are BNP leaders and activists.”

Accusing the government of politicising the judiciary and administration, Fakhrul said the country’s people have no confidence in the judiciary as they are not getting any justice from there.

He said the government has snatched people’s rights to expression and established its full control over the media. “Those who now work for media have become helpless due to the Digital Security Act.”

The BNP leader called upon people of all works of life to forge strong national unity for the restoration of democracy in the country through a united movement.

Some foreign diplomats and the representatives of various international organisations joined the programme.

MSH/