The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday said that the current culture of irresponsibility and lack of justice must stop.

‘Torture and death in custody of law enforcement agencies must stop. Justice should be ensured for the victim families, their safety should be ensured,’ BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a statement issued on the occasion of United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on Sunday.

‘I express my deep sympathy to the oppressed people, races, groups, castes and linguistic communities around the whole world, including Bangladesh. Throughout the ages, people have been and are still being oppressed by dictators, brutal dictators and one-party rule in various countries. There is still a war of violence going on in some regions of the world on the basis of language, caste, race and community,’ Fakhrul said.

He said that majorities in different parts of the world were committing inhuman torture on minorities.

‘Intolerant dictators or violent undemocratic groups use merciless torture to wipe out political dissenters. In Bangladesh, the ruling party with the state power is now carrying out fascist oppression on the people,’ he said.

He said that many people became victims of disappearances due to state terrorism, killings in alleged gun battles, and deaths due to physical torture.

‘Since there is no accountability of the government to the people, all the democratic institutions have been taken over and the burden of one-party misrule has been placed on the chest of the people. Attempts are being made to control the media with threats and intimidation and torture,’ he said.

Some of the political leaders, human rights activists, political analysts who are vocal in favour of democracy are going missing, being crippled, being tortured or are dying in police custody as part of government oppression, he alleged.

‘All the achievements and progress of the nation are now lost in darkness. The last vestiges of democracy have been wiped out by a continued tyranny,’ he said.

Fakhrul also said that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia had been kept in prison under a vindictive sentence in a completely false and fabricated case.

He said that the lack of proper medical treatment in the prison put Khaleda’s life in danger.

‘We must bring an end to the existing tyranny,’ he said.

He urged the democracy-loving people of the country to unite and build resistance to all forms of torture on International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.