Dhaka, Jan 07 – The BNP on Monday accused the government of depriving party’s jailed chairperson Khaleda Zia from her legitimate rights as a prisoner by not allowing her relatives to meet her for a long.“She (Khaleda) is being deprived of the legitimate right of a prisoner as her closed relatives are not allowed to meet her for over last three weeks. Her close relatives could not meet her for about
21-22 days though they repeatedly sought permission from the authorities,” alleged BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference at party central office at Naya Paltan.
He said though chairperson’s personal secretary, close relatives, and party senior leaders repeatedly sought permission to meet her, the jail authorities aren’t paying heed to it.
The BNP leader demanded the authorities concerned to take necessary steps immediately so that her relatives can meet Khaleda who is languishing in jail in two corruption cases since February last year.
Referring to the jail code, he said a prisoner can meet relatives after every seven days, but the jail authorities made it 15 days for Khaleda Zia. “The authorities are now overlooking their 15 days rule
at the directives of the government.”
Rizvi termed it a cruel behaviour to the former premier alleging that the government is mentally torturing Khaleda Zia as part of a plan to harm the nationalist forces in many ways.
He said prohibiting Khaleda’s close relatives from meeting her is a serious mental repression to her and the country’s people along with her relatives are worried over the matter.
What does the cruel behviour indicates? Such atrocious behavior is being conducted to mentally torture Khaleda Zia and her relatives… The government is hatching a conspiracy to keep Khaleda isolated from the
outside world by confining her in big red walls of the jail, he claimed.
The BNP leader alleged that the party leaders and activists are being arrested and implicated in ‘false’ cases even after the 11th parliamentary elections.
BNP leaders-Nazmul Haque Nannu, Prof Sahida Rafiq, Abdus Salam Azad and Monir Hossain, among others, were present at the press conference. – Staff Reporter
