Dhaka: BNP on Wednesday alleged that the government is blaming BNP for the recent murder of two foreigners without any proof in a bid to confuse the international community and the country’s people and suppress the opposition.

In a statement, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, ‘The government is trying to divert people’s attention to a different direction from some of the recent killings by blaming BNP without any fair investigation. It’s also trying to hush up its failure and suppressing the opposition and different opinions as it does regularly.’

Japanese citizen Hoshi Kunio was shot dead in Rangpur on 3 October, five days after the killing of an Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.

Fakhrul said they are observing with surprise and anger that the government has launched a ‘fabricated campaign’ involving BNP with the brutal and heinous killing of the two foreign nationals without any proper probe.

Denouncing the killing of the foreign citizens, he demanded the government identify the assailants and bring them to justice through proper investigations.

The BNP leader voiced concern that a ‘fabricated’ case was filed against their party’s standing committee member Tariqul Islam and over a hundred party leaders and activists in Jessore. Police also arrested a number of Jessore unit BNP leaders, including its general secretary Saberul Haq Sabu, he added.

Besides, he said, many leaders and activists, including Kishoreganj BNP organising secretary Haji Ismail, Rangpur city BNP organising secretary Anisul Haq Lacku, Chittagong Medical College’s ex-VP Rashed-un-Nabi Biplob, and Bgora Jubo Dal president Sipar Al Bakhtiar, were also arrested in different ‘fabricated’ cases.

‘BNP’s top leaders and other leaders and activists are being arrested and implicated in fabricated cases with the regime’s political motive to suppress the opposition and different opinions,’ he observed.

The BNP acting secretary general demanded the government withdraw the ‘fabricated’ cases filed against Tariqul and other leaders and activists and immediately release those were arrested.

Fakhrul alleged that the government is repressing their ailing party joint general secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi by sending him jail from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), depriving him of treatment.

He demanded the government ensure his treatment at the BSMMU and set him free immediately.

Fakhrul alleged that the government instead of taking steps to restore democratic and congenial atmosphere in the country it has blocked all the democratic ways by resorting to repressive acts and ‘fabricated’ cases.