As many as 1,249 leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were sentenced in 79 lawsuits over the last 14 weeks, claimed a forum of BNP-leaning lawyers on Monday.

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum leaders also said at a press conference in the afternoon that the government has imprisoned some 21,835 leaders and activists of the de facto opposition since the party’s mass rally in Dhaka on 28 October.

The Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum organised the press conference at the Supreme Court Bar ASsociation’s South Hall protesting at the statement of agriculture minister Abdur Razzaque, also a presidium member of governing Awami League. He said that the “government offered BNP leaders release from jail  in one night if they join polls”.

The secretary general of the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum and BNP’s law affairs secretary Kaysar Kamal read out a written statement at the conference.

It said, “Our attention has been drawn to the statement of agriculture minister Abdur Razzaque in an interview with a private television channel. He said the Awami League had wholeheartedly tried to bring in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to the forthcoming election. Even the BNP did not agree to the proposal of releasing the imprisoned leaders in one night. He further said it has been said repeatedly from the election commission that if the BNP joins the polls, the schedule will be deferred. Not only deferred, it was said they would be released from jail. Abdur Razzaque said if 20,000 BNP leaders and activists had not been arrested, the vehicles would not have been plying on the streets amid hartal today. We had no other alternatives. Whatever we did, we did it thoughtfully. The country would have become immobilised had we not kept them in jail.”

Kaysar Kamal alleged, “This statement of a policy-making level leader of Awami League proves how the government of Sheikh Hasina has grabbed all the constitutional organisations of the state.”

In the written statement he further said this statement of AL leader Abdur Razzaque is actually a confessional statement of making the constitutional organisations subservient by a “fascist government”.

His statement clarified that the government has illegally incarcerated as many as 21,835 leaders and activists of the BNP since 28 October to quell the ongoing movement of the party to reinstate the people’s snatched voting rights, democracy, and human rights.

As many as 1,249 leaders and activists of the BNP were awarded imprisonment for different terms in 79 cases over the past 14 weeks, the written statement mentioned.

Interned BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee member Mirza Abbas and other central leaders and activists from different rungs rejected the government's proposal with utter disdain, Kaysar Kamal informed the media.

He said, “We as a platform of lawyers condemn this whimsical act of the government in the strongest terms. The incumbent fascist government has made all the constitutional organisations either submissive or taken to the brink of destruction.”

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum president AJ Mohammad Ali, vice-president M Badruddoza, joint secretary general Md Ruhul Kuddus, and the Forum’s Supreme Court unit general secretary Gazi Kamrul Islam were present at the conference.