Dhaka: BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday alleged that ‘state terrorism’ is being carried out now in Bangladesh to eliminate the ‘opposition as there is no democracy, human rights and the rule of law’.

‘Bangladesh has virtually turned into a fascist country as state terrorism is being carried out here to annihilate the opposition,’ he said.

Speaking at a programme at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU), the BNP leader further said, ‘Human rights are now exiled affairs in Bangladesh. There‘s no iota of human rights, the rule of law and democracy here. Democracy is buried here.’

Jatiyatabadi Help Cell arranged the programme to provide financial assistance to the family members of five Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders who were ‘made disappeared’ during the party's anti-government movement. The cell has so far provided family members of 31 enforced disappearance victims with financial assistance over the last two years.

Mentioning that the incidents of enforced disappearance have been carried out in the country since 2010, Fakhrul said it is a crime against humanity.

The BNP leader claimed that their over 1,000 leaders and activists were killed while over 500 made disappeared, about 1,000 maimed and thousands of people sent to jail over the last seven years.

Besides, he said, their leaders and activists are being tortured, attacked and even their land and businesses are being grabbed to establish a one-party rule destroying pluralism ‘It’s unfortunate that the whole country has now become subservient to a particular party as all the institutions have been politicised,’ the BNP secretary general observed.

To overcome it, he said, there is no alternative to waging a united movement of people of all walks of life for the restoration of democracy and people’s voting and human rights.

Turning to militancy, he said the government is turning down BNP’s call for forging a national unity against militancy as it is trying to use the issue to make its political gain. ‘We’ve long been saying it won’t be possible to eliminate extremism if the government uses it for its political gain.’

Criticising the government for killing the suspected militants in crossfire instead of extracting information from them, he said the government will not be able to rein in militancy by only using force and resorting to crossfire.

‘Terrorism and militancy must be tackled with demotic forces. There is a necessity for more freedom and more democracy to resist it. A democratic environment and freedom of expression must be restored to face the dangerous demon of militancy. But, the government is deliberately avoiding it,’ he added.