The government was left with no choice but to arrest the senior BNP leaders if it was to secure public life and property, the Information Minister said on Friday night.
Speaking to bdnews24.com hours after the stalwarts were detained, Hasanul Haq Inu said, “Acts of sabotages are being carried out in the name of strike.
“People are getting killed. This strike is provocative.”
The government was forced to make the arrests to save the people from sabotage and violence, he said.
Police had arrested Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia around 8:15pm from the capital’s Karwan Bazar. They were returning from a programme at the Sonargaon Hotel.
Officials said they were taken to Detective Branch headquarters at Minto Road.
Their arrest came hours after BNP’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir declared the third three-day nationwide general strike in as many weeks beginning from Sunday after a meeting of the 18-Party alliance Friday afternoon.
The BNP also alleged that that police raided residences of several other senior leaders of the party.
The Opposition has long been on the streets demanding the upcoming parliamentary election be held under a non-party government. Refusing that, the ruling Awami League has proposed an all-party interim government instead.
Amid the standoff and calls from foreign diplomats and business leaders for a dialogue to sort out a solution, the BNP-led opposition coalition observed two three-day countrywide shutdowns in as many past weeks which were marked by bomb explosions, vandalism and arson incidents.
According to the government’s account, at least 20 people were also killed in violence.
Inu on Friday night said when the option of dialogue is getting shape, announcing three days of general strike even after six days of shutdown was “inhuman and against humanity, education and the country”.
The minister said 2.1 million students were deprived of sitting their examinations due to the shutdowns. “Annual tests, admission tests take place at this time of the year.”
Arson attacks and violent incidents ahead of the strike amounted to war against the state, he observed.
Source: Bd news24