BD Correspondent:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday sought Election Commission’s intervention in stopping the arrest and harassment of its leaders and activists.
In a letter addressed to the chief election commissioner, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also urged the Election Commission to take step for withdrawal of ‘false’ cases filed against them and release of the arrested party activists.

BNP’s central office official Salahuddin Khan reached the letter to Election Commission and handed it over to the commission official concerned Friday morning.
In the letter, Fakhrul said that hundreds of cases were being filed against BNP leaders and activists, and they are being arrested even after the announcement of the election schedule.

‘Law enforcers are even barring nomination seekers from coming to BNP’s Nayapaltan central office and several hundred leaders and activists have been arrested as well,’ he said.

Fakhrul said some over-enthusiastic law enforcers were engaged in ‘misdeeds’ defying the commission’s order.
He said the law enforcers set up check-posts on different link roads around the BNP office and they are harassing opposition leaders and activists for the last four days defying the EC’s order.

‘Even, the law enforcers are snatching nomination papers and tearing them off,’ he alleged.
Fakhrul said their 60-70 leaders and workers were arrested on Wednesday alone while a drive to arrest the opposition activists was still going on.

‘The credibility of the election will be called into question if such arrests and harassment continue,’ he said.
‘The law enforcers are now under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission after the announcement of the election schedule. So, we seek your intervention to stop the filing of false and fictitious cases and the arrest of our leaders and activists by law enforcers,’ he said.

BNP also sent a list of 472 BNP leaders and activists who were arrested in different cases after the announcement of the schedule for the 11th parliamentary elections on November 8.
Election Commission joint secretary Farhad Ahmed Khan told New Age that the commission would send a letter to the police within a day or two for giving its report on Naya Paltan incident.