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Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Friday said the ruling Awami League would soon be defeated in its game of putting opponents behind bars.
He made the comments at a sit-in staged outside the National Press Club demanding immediate and unconditional release of the detained BNP leaders and activists.
The central committee of the Zia Prajanma Dal organised the programme.
"It seems enjoying daylight and taking free breath by BNP leaders is now forbidden. They (BNP leaders) have to stay most of the time in prison."
"Prison is now their permanent address…," claimed Mr Rizvi, saying that arresting BNP leaders and sending them to jail by the government are yet to be finished.
The BNP leader accused the government of increasingly becoming more of a tyrant as they did not have public support.
BNP leaders and activists numbering 25,000-26,000 have been in jail for nearly four months since what he called 'dummy' election in January.
Mr Rizvi said many prominent politicians, including Mahatma Gandhi, also went to jail but nowhere was it cited that they were behind bars for political reasons.
The ruling clique sent opponents to jail citing allegations of their involvement in acts of crime. Refuting the government's comments that some BNP men are in jail following specific cases filed against them (not political reasons), he said: "The entire nation knows that you (government) sent them to jail through false cases."
Zia Prajanma Dal central committee chairman Parveen Kawser Munni chaired the event which was moderated by secretary general Md Sarwar Hossain Rubel.
Dhaka south BNP convener Abdus Salam, BNP's Swechchhasebak secretary Mir Sorafat Ali Sopu and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir, among others, were present.