DHAKA: Supreme Court Bar Association president, also Bangladesh Bar Council vice chairman, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain on Saturday alleged that the government is showing muscle power to lawyers using police.

The senior lawyer criticized government for barring lawyers’ peaceful rally and detaining of 14 advocates and warned of tougher movement countrywide demanding immediate release of the detainees.

He was talking to journalists amid police bid to foil the lawyers’ rally at the SC premise at 10:00am.

Mahbub Hosain said, “Today’s programme was a non-political one, our rally was in protest against murders, kidnaps, disappearance across the country including that of Narayanganj’s lawyer Chanda Sarkar and demanding establishment of rule of law countrywide.”

“But government barred us to hold the rally using its police forces,” he added criticizing the vandalism at the rally stage by the police.

Mahbub warned the police saying, “The countrymen favored the movement, you (police) have to keep in mind you are using arms, which is bought by people’s money, to kill the general people.”

“People (power holders) who are using you (police) and who are being used all will be brought to book one day,” vowed Mahbub, who is also an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

SCBA general secretary Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokan said, “These days, the country has no rule of law, the judges can not giving the justices.”

BNP's joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, Jatiyatabadi Lawyers Forum joint secretary general Md Syed Hassan Bakhtiar and advocate Golam Mostafa, among others, spoke there.

BDST: 1250 HRS MAY 24, 2014