Protesting the arrests of its leaders and activists, BNP today termed the announcement of general election schedule by the Election Commission farcical.

“Dialogue, election, announcement of election schedule all synonymous to farce,” BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told this to journalists at a press briefing.

Rizvi held the briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka around 11:00am.

The announcement of the election schedule in a hurried manner without listening to public opinion in this regard is an allusion of holding a lopsided national election as per the government’s directives, Rizvi said.

The senior BNP leader also said that the countrymen are shocked and disappointed to witness the farce staged by the government in the name of political dialogue over the election.

“It is a matter of disbelief how the top person in the government [prime minister] could break her promise. She [PM Sheikh Hasina] said no more political arrests would be made, and since that very night more arrests were being made and more cases were being filed against the opposition leaders and activists,” Rizvi said.

“Even the CEC (chief election commissioner), while announcing the polls schedule, instructed the administration not to harass the opposition men by making arrests and filing cases. However, over 300 opposition men were held just yesterday, while more cases are being filed against them,” he also said.

The PM Hasina-led government wants to hold a one-sided election in a bid to retain power instead of creating a level-playing field and congenial atmosphere for holding the polls in a free, fair and credible manner, Rizvi said.

“The prisons in the country have turned out to be Sheikh Hasina’s torture cells to take her personal revenge against opposition men,” he added.