Dhaka, July 14 – The police on Saturday foiled a seminar scheduled to be organised by Zia Parishad, a pro-BNP organization, at the Engineers’ Institution, Bangladesh (IEB).BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who was scheduled to address the seminar as the chief guest, said the denial of holding the programme proved that there are no democratic rights of people to rallies and meetings.
“We have been repeatedly speaking that the government has destroyed the democracy. There are no democratic rights of freedom of expression, holding meetings and rallies. The denial of holding today’s programme proved it again,” he said while talking to reporters in front of the IEB.
The BNP leader said the government destroyed the democratic atmosphere in the country and snatched the rights of the opposition of expression and there is no environment to speak.
“The government not only arresting the opposition leaders and activists and resorting to harassment on them. It also deprived the political rights to hold meetings and rallies, he alleged.
Mirza Alamgir alleged the present government has destroyed the minimum democratic space in the country, only to perpetuate its power.
“Now the country lacks minimum democratic space while people have no freedom to express their views and opinions,” he said.
He protested and condemned the denial of the administration to hold the seminar of Zia Parishad on ‘Citizen Rights, Rule of Law and Democracy: Bangladesh Perspective’.
Police said the organisers did not take permission to hold the seminar, but the organisers said they got verbal permission from the law enforcement authorities.
Zia Parishad chairman Kabir Murad alleged that a group of policemen arrived in the seminar venue around 10:00 o’clock in the morning and asked them not to organise the programme saying it had no permission.
He said they applied to the police on 2 July for the seminar and they got verbal permission on 4 July from the police authorities.
Deputy commissioner of Ramna Zone Maruf Hossain told reporters that neither BNP nor anyone else applied to the police authorities for the permission. – Staff Reporter
