UN calls for stopping arbitrary arrests ahead of Bangladesh polls
Staff Reporter :
The United Nations has clearly articulated that it does not want to see any sort of harassment or arbitrary arrest or violence ahead of the 12th parliamentary election slated for early January next year.
UN Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said this in reply to a question of a journalist in a press briefing in the UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
Referring to the statement of the Human Rights Watch, the journalist asked that the HRW has called upon Bangladesh’s international partners to insist that elections cannot be considered fair when the opposition is targeted, harassed and behind the bars.
At least three members of the opposition killed in the police gunfire.
Does the Secretary-General is taking the Member State’s situation seriously?
The Spokesperson in reply said, “I think our viewpoint on Bangladesh and the need for free and fair election, we’ve spoken out very clearly.
We’ve also spoken out against the need not to see any harassment or arbitrary arrest or violence in this period.”
Centring the Oct 28 grand rally called by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the law enforcers dismantled the gatherings by firing rubber bullets, sound grade, tear shell canisters and charged batton on the opposition members of BNP.
The entire Nayapaltan and its adjacent areas turned into a battle ground during that time.
The opposition blamed that the police had attacked them without any provocation and foiled their peacefully rally as they had done in their previous programmes over the last one year.
On the same day, the ruling Awami League was also on the ground just a few hundred yards away from the BNP’s grand rally. Ruling Awami League was equipped with bamboo and wooden sticks surrounded by the law enforcers.
When tens of thousands of BNP supporters gathered to voice their demand for a caretaker government imperative to hold a free and fair election, the law enforcers foiled their rally and led to clashes leaving at least three people including a policeman killed and hundreds other injured.
Following the police action, the international bodies, including UN Human Rights Commission, HRW, and Amnesty International condemned the violence and urged the government to practice restraints and not to attack and arrest the opposition members and urged them to release the prisoners.
They said that the government should ensure a peaceful environment for holding a free and fair election.
