<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Sunday said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has turned the country into a big prison. The government’s subservient Election Commission is calling on BNP to participate in the upcoming national polls, on the other hand, leaders and activists of all levels of the party are being arrested. It is like a great joke.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>He said in a press statement. Rizvi condemned and protested the arrests of vice-chairmen Shahjahan Omar and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, and Organising Secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince in the statement. He also demanded their unconditional release.</div><div><br></div><div>The BNP leader dubbed the letter sent by the Election Commission to the BNP central office, now locked by the law enforcement agencies, another joke.</div><div><br></div><div>He said the way leaders and activists of BNP and other parties are being arrested in raids ahead of the polls, it is clear that the ruling party is determined to seize the state power once again by holding the general election in any way.</div><div><br></div><div>“But this time, the people will not allow the dream of the Awami League government to be realised.”</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said that the people would not return home leaving the streets until their demands for resignation of the government and a polls-time non-party neutral government system were realised.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>