80% BNP leaders, activists faced torture: Fakhrul

Around 80% of BNP leaders and activists faced torture unleashed by the "fascist" Awami League government, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said today (28 March).

"They cannot retain power without unleashing torture and suppressing people. Their first victim of suppression is BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and she is fighting against it," he said at a programme of distributing Eid gifts among families of the victims of enforced disappearance on behalf of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman at BNP chairperson's Gulshan office.

He said, "When BNP started movement against the fascist government or one-party rule or one woman's rule, aiming to establish people's right and democracy, they started repression on the BNP men.

"They have created such an environment of fear where no one can talk, write freely."

The "fascist" regime's repression reached such a level that the opposition leaders and activists' family member including father, mother, son, daughter and wife were not spared, he added.

After getting bail, the victims shared the experience of inhuman torture in prison like uprooting their nails, breaking their legs and so on. The most pathetic was they could not get any treatment, Fakhrul said.

Urging unity of all forces, the BNP secretary general said, "As a democratic political party we are doing more than our capacity to free the country from this terrible situation."

There is no alternative to forge unity like 1969, 1971, 1990 where people fought against fascist, autocrat regime to restore democracy, he said.