'BNP leaders-activists being crippled by torture during remand'

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the arrested leaders and activists of his party are being tortured and crippled before being brought to court and are being tortured again after being remanded.

In a statement issued Saturday, Fakhrul said that the current illegal government has chosen the path of medieval torture.

Fakhrul said Gana Odkhikar Parishad’s convener Nurul Haque was beaten so brutally at the remand that he could not even stand while he was taken to the court, according to pictures published in media.

The BNP secretary general said quota reform movement’s three coordinators—Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder—were picked up from hospital by detectives.

Such barbaric acts will only worsen the situation, he added.

Fakhrul alleged that the authorities are not following any law during the remands and eliciting concocted stories from them by resorting to brutal torture.

Apart from political activists and mass people, students are also being arrested through ‘block raids’.

The BNP leader’s statement said some top law enforcement officials said bullets were not fired from helicopters. But if the matter is so, the people of the country ask that how the children named Samir, who was standing by the window of his house, got shot and killed.

The BNP secretary general also alleged that journalist Sayeed Khan was picked up from his house at the dead hours on 25 July and brutally tortured. Sayeed is organising secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Dhaka correspondent of The Mirror Asia.