The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party briefed diplomats of foreign missions in the country on Wednesday about the police and ruling Awami League attacks on opposition leaders and activists during Saturday’s sit-in programmes at Dhaka city entry points. The party’s general secretary, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, briefed the diplomats at a city hotel during a closed-door meeting.

After the hour-long briefing, BNP’s chairman of the international affairs committee and standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury disclosed the meeting topics to reporters.

He said that people who believe in democracy in Bangladesh want to see democracy, democratic order, and human rights.

‘We said these things earlier at a press briefing. We said these words at this diplomatic briefing,’ he said.

‘We briefed them because they wanted to know what was happening in Bangladesh. The way Bangladesh is heading for elections... the elections of 2014 and 2018 remind us. That process has begun… using the judiciary, using law enforcement, and using government officials is ongoing,’ he said.

He said that the incidents of attacks, arrests, and torture by the police and law enforcement agencies during the grand rally and sit-in protest of the BNP in Dhaka on July 28 and 29, respectively, had been described to diplomats in detail.

‘These kinds of attacks, arrests, and cases against injured people, many are abroad, many are on Hajj—the intention is clear. Their target is to steal votes by using intimidation as an election trick to seize power again,’ he said.

Asked about foreign diplomats’ reply, he said, ‘We have briefed them on the overall situation. It’s not for them to say.’

He said that diplomats from 25 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Germany, Japan, China, and Russia, had joined the meeting.

Among others, party standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, and Nazrul Islam Khan, and international affairs committee members Enamul Haque Chowdhury, Shama Obaid, Asaduzzaman Asad, Naushad Zamir, Anindya Islam Amit, Tabith Awal, Ishraque Hossain, Nazrul Islam Azad, Fahima Nasreen Munni, Rumeen Farhana, and Farzana Sharmin Putul were present in the meeting.