Dhaka: Claiming that its 1,500 leaders and activists were arrested and 80,000 unidentified people were made accused across the country in 12,000 cases over the last two weeks, BNP on Thursday said Bangladesh has now become a ‘repressive state’.

‘Sheikh Hasina (PM) has turned Bangladesh into a repressive state. The state machinery is being illegally used to suppress people’s protest through brutal exercise of power,’ said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, reports the UNB.

Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he further said, ‘As per information we’ve received so far, our over 1,500 leaders and activists were arrested since pre-Eid time to till date across the country. Around 1200 cases were filed against 11,000 identified and 80,000 unidentified people over the same period.’

Besides, the BNP leader alleged, law enforcers have continued their raids on the houses of their party leaders and workers at different parts of the country, including Dhaka city, Pirojpur, Natore, Kushtia, Meherpur and Narsingdi.

Rizvi asked the reason behind the ‘wholesale’ arrest of their party men and filing a large number of cases against them since BNP still did not launch its movement. ‘The government did it as it always suffers from the fear of people.’

He warned that the government will not be able to hang onto power by using the law enforcers to suppress its opponents. ‘The government can’t realise that it’s going to sink in quicksand.’

Rizvi alleged that the government has established a ‘one-person’ rule in the country by destroying all the constitutional and democratic institutions.

He also said the government is not willing to hold a fair and credible national election to avoid its disgraceful defeat. ‘Sheikh Hasina has decided to eliminate opposition leaders and activists to hold another voter-less unilateral election.’

The BNP leader alleged that the government has kept their chairperson Khaleda Zia in jail ‘unlawfully in a false case out of its political vengeance’. ‘They’ve now shifted the court to jail to hold a camera trial of Khaleda Zia.’

Warning the government that people will not accept the trial of such a makeshift court in jail, he demanded Khaleda’s immediate release and her better treatment.