Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday called on all to turn around for restoring democracy and freedom of expression.
‘Let’s get united for once to raise voice for democratic space and freedom of speech,’ he said at a programme organised by journalists and employees of closed down daily Amar Desh and Amar Desh Online protesting at closing 30 online news papers including Amar Desh Online and demanding release of acting Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman.
Fakhrul alleged that there no political space in the country as opposition parties required police permission for holding any rally or procession.
He said that offices many district BNP offices had to be closed and if any of them opened, police took position in or around the offices.
The BNP leader said that police in uniform and plainclothes are deployed even in front of the central BNP office and plainclothes police often picked up BNP activists.
Referring to the Digital Security Bill 2016 approved by the cabinet on Monday proposed life term sentence for propagating against Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the war of independence, Fakhrul said journalists should decide what would be their role on the issue.
Referring to his contacts with different political parties for forging national unity called by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia to face extremism, he said that those parties imposed various conditions.
He asked to whom those parties would impose conditions when danger would come to them.
He said that now people including opposition leaders and activists were being arrested in the name of extremism to frighten people.
At one stage, Fakhrul could not hold back tears stating that many BNP activists found to pull rickshaw and become hawkers in Dhaka leaving their localities facing cases.
He said journalists should strongly raise their voice against shut down of online news papers though it was now tough to take to the street when law enforcers picked up protesters and their relatives.
Presided over by Shammilita Peshajibi Parishad acting president Ruhul Amin Gazi, the programme was also addressed by poet and columnist Farhad Mazhar, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists faction secretary general M Abdullah and journalists Syed Abdal Ahmed and Kader Gani Chowdhury.
Source: New Age