The government has set up a special court inside the Old Dhaka jail unconstitutionally to meet its politics of vengeance against Khaleda Zia, BNP alleged today.

“The government has done a disgusting job by setting up a special court inside the Old Dhaka jail to try Khaleda Zia unconstitutionally. It means, the court has been confined in jail,” BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed said today.

The government’s aim is nothing but to increase Khaleda Zia’s jail term and to destroy her by deteriorating health condition, Rizvi said.

He was addressing a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka.

“The government does not care about the law in attaining its politics of vengeance against Khaleda Zia,” he alleged.

Yesterday, Khaleda Zia’s trial in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case was held in a special court inside the Old Dhaka jail on Nazimuddin Road on security ground.

“You (people) have seen Khaleda Zia was brought to the court on a wheelchair as she was too weak to stand. She was trembling and she could not move her hand and feet during the trial,” he said.

BNP has repeatedly been demanding proper treatment of Khaleda Zia but the government is not paying any heed to this end, the BNP leader said.

Rizvi also blamed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for “turning the country into a repressive state” and said all the state machinery are being “illegally used to repress and suppress the people through the cruel exercise of power”. 

He said around 1,500 leaders and activists were arrested and 80,000 unidentified people were made accused across the country in 12,000 cases over the last two weeks.

“The government has indulged in such wholesale arrest as it is suffering from the fear of people. “It can't understand that it's going to sink in quicksand,” he said.

He warned that the government will not be able to hang onto power by using the law enforcers to suppress its opponents.