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Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) demanded on Sunday that the government release all detained opposition leaders and students from prison unconditionally.
It also called upon the government to stop torturing them (leaders and students, during remand.
Secretary General of BNP Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demands in a statement issued on the day.
"The government has taken a dual policy centering quota reform movement. The government on one hand is assuring that the students involved with the quota movement would not be arrested and harassed but on the other hand it (government) is continuing drive to hunt down them (students)," he said.
He said that over 9,000 leaders and activists of opposition parties including BNP have been arrested so far.
He alleged that the detained party leaders and activists were being tortured during remand.
Mr Fakhrul further said that many of the detained BNP leaders were physically ill and warned that if anything untoward happened during their remand then the government and the law enforcing agencies must take the responsibility.
"The country has become a place of torture. Whatever tactics the government is applying, they (government) must cede to the mass demand and step down," he continued.
Meanwhile, president of a faction of Bangladesh Labour Party Mostafizur Rahman Iran and secretary general Khandakar Mirajul Islam have given their party's consent on forging greater unity among the opponents following the call made by the secretary general of BNP.
The party cleared its position in a statement signed by its publicity secretary Md Monir Hossain Khan.