The BNP has submitted a list of cases filed against its leaders and activists to the Election Commission and sought its intervention.
On Sunday, the party handed over the list, which it previously gave to the prime minister’s office (PMO), to Chief Election Commission KM Nurul Huda’s office.
According to the list, the total cases filed during January 2018 to November 14, 2018 is 4,429, while the total number of accused is 4,34,975 with 1,09,441 named and 3,25,534 unnamed accused. Of the accused, the number of arrestees is 10,472 ones.
Some 773 BNP leaders and workers were arrested after the Commission announced the election schedule on Nov 8, the letter says.
Among the cases, BNP earlier submitted two lists of some 2,048 cases to the PMO on Nov 6 and 13 after two rounds of talks between Jatiya Oikya Front and the Awami League-led 14-party Alliance at the PM’s official residence Ganabhaban.
In the letter to the CEC, BNP said they were not informed whether the cases were withdrawn and arrested leaders and workers released after the submission of their lists of the cases to the Prime Minister.
In the letter, BNP requested the CEC to relieve its leaders and workers from the cases and immediately stop their arrest.
It further said thousands of false, fabricated, peculiar, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated cases were filed against its central unit and different grassroots units’ leaders across the country after Awami League came to power in 2009.
The letter said law enforcement agencies kept arresting BNP leaders and activists filing false and fictitious cases against them across the country since September 1 ahead of the next parliamentary polls.
Even the names of dead, ailing and maimed persons, hajj pilgrims, and persons staying abroad were accused in the fictitious cases, the letter reads further.