Police arrested Bnp Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as he came out of the National Press Club ending his little over 24-hour stay to avoid arrest. The managing committee of the club was under pressure from the pro-AL journalist union to ask the politician to leave the club which they said should not be used for political activities.
Mirza Fakhrul had gone to the Press Club at about 2 pm on Monday and attended a discussion meeting of the ‘Peshajibi Parishad’ (professionals’ council) at the club auditorium. He was obstructed from going out of the club by pro-AL political activists under the name and style ‘Muktijoddha Projonma League’ who had taken position at the gate in the morning.
After Mirza Fakhrul’s going to the press club there was tension as the pro-AL journalist union leaders who were demonstrating against ‘militancy and anarchy’ started agitating against the presence of ‘outsiders’ in the club and the pro-Bnp journalist union leaders who were demonstrating against arrest and harassment of journalists. They raised slogans and counter-slogans when ‘projonma league members entered club entering the club by scaling its gate and beat up some journalists.
Mirza Fakhrul who failed to go out with leaders of the professional council because of the obstruction that was created stayed back at the club and made a overnight stay there as police personnel increased their presence brought prison vans obviously to arrest him.
Addressing the press conference before leaving the Press Club Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir urged all to join the ongoing movement under the leadership of Begum Khaleda Zia to rescue democracy and safeguard the independence and sovereignty of the country which were under threat. As Mirza Fakhrul came out he was arrested by police and taken in a car to the Detective Branch office of the Dhaka Metropolitan police. Journalists were later told that he would be produced before the court on Wednesday.
He said he did not get out of the club on the previous night entirely on ground of personal safety. He thanked the journalists for the cooperation extended to him by them in this regard and those who remained awake all the night performing professional duties.
He Bnp leader said that the journalists had made positive contributions to all democratic movements and the War of Liberation. They believe in freedom of thought and expression. The people of the country want democracy to prevail. As the followers of this thought journalists have extended hospitality towards him, as they did to others.
He said that the 05 January 2014 elections had been turned into a farce. Many people were killed or abducted during that period. Khaleda Zia had called a rally to commemorate the day. He said unfortunately the government did not grant permission to hold the rally, but instead imposed Section 144 and prohibited meetings and rallied all over the country. They confined Khaleda Zia to her office for two days. This they had done also last year before the farcical election, he said.
He said that the government put the Bnp head office under lock and key two days ahead of the date of the rally, arrested ailing joint secretary general Rizvi, locked up the gate of the Gulshan office of the party put barricades on the way using 13 sand and brick-chips laden trucks. By prohibiting the plying the Dhaka-bound buses from different districts the government had turned Dhaka into an isolated island one day ahead of the scheduled rally.
Mirza Fakhrul said that the government had foiled the Gazipur meeting the Bnp and imposed ban on rallies and meetings to foil the Dhaka rally. He said that the government turned the entire country into a prison, and four ’embraced martyrdom’ in police firing on Monday. More than a thousand people were injured, many became crippled. In Chittagong police attacked rally even after giving permission, opened fire and arrested 600 people.
Alleging that the government had established a reign of terror in the country, he said that the country has been turned into an unbearable prison through murder, abduction, killing, harassment and false cases. Criticising the closure of ETV channel, the said hundreds of journalists were made unemployed through the closure of newspapers and media houses, about a hundred journalists ’embraced martyrdom’. ETV has been closed and its chairman arrested as they bring out the truth, he said.
The said that the country was now passing through its worst critical juncture. All people should join the ongoing movement to restore their right to vote and establish representative government in the country as has been urged by Khaleda Zia. He urged all to join movement under the leadership of Khaleda Zia to restore democracy and establishment people’s government through free, fair and credible elections. – Staff Reporter
