Govt creates climate of fear with DSA: BNP

BNP on Tuesday accused the government of trying to create a climate of fear by using the Digital Security Act to muzzle the voice of people ahead of the next national election to ‘usurp’ power again.

Speaking at a seminar, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir urged the government to repeal the DSA as it has now become a demand of mass people.

“The government has enacted such laws to hang onto power by force. The national election is nearing. They have made these laws so that no one can put up a resistance against them and register protest against their wrongdoings ahead of the election,” he said

The BNP leader said the citizens of the country are being prevented from speaking up and lodging their complaints while the journalists are being obstructed from writing by abusing the DSA.

He said the government also wants to cross the election hurdle by keeping their opponents completely out of the race using the DSA and other ‘black’ laws.

“All the black laws must be abolished. First of all, the Digital Security Act should be repealed. It’s now the demand of the country and its mass people,” Fakhrul observed.

BNP arranged the seminar titled “Digital Security Act, Democracy & Constitutional Scheme” at a city hotel. Advocate Asaduzzaman, the human rights affairs secretary of BNP, presented the keynote paper at the programme.”

Some people who were reported to be the victims of the DSA and ICT Act also spoke about their ordeal at the event.

Fakhrul said the government has enacted the DSA and many other laws so that the citizens of the country are afraid to speak up.

He said there is a film titled 1984 depicting how authoritarian rule was established in North Korea by intimidating its citizens and creating a climate of fear to enslave that nation. “Its reflection has now started in Bangladesh through the arrest and jailing of Prothom Alo journalist Shamsuzzaman and the filing of cases under the DSA against him and many other journalist brothers.”

The BNP leader said many journalists and cyber activists were jailed and tortured and made disappeared by the government.