Shawdesh Desk:

Terming the Digital Security Act the worst black law for democracy and people’s freedom, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday demanded complete repeal of the law instead of its transformation.

Speaking at a press conference, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also said that the government’s move to replace the DSA with the Cyber Security Act was tantamount to cheating people.

‘Our position is very clear as we’re in favour of complete annulment of the Digital Security Act. This act should not remain in place in any way as it’s the worst black law for democracy and people’s freedom,’ he said.

The BNP leader said that revoking the DSA was one of their demands for which they were carrying out the anti-government movement.

‘Our main point is that we want the complete repeal of the act since it’s a law against democracy, people’s rights, and freedom of the press. So, there’s no justification to keep this law (in any form),’ Fakhrul said.

He said that the government had taken the move to transform the Digital Security Act into Cyber Security Act in a bid to deceive people.

As the government is under tremendous pressure from the international community, the BNP leader said, the government was also trying to pacify them with this move.

‘The ostrich has a tendency to hide its head in the sand when confronted with a storm. The government’s move is like that. They think they are doing a very smart thing by fooling people like this,’ he said.

Fakhrul said that they would come up with their party’s formal reaction to the government’s move later after gathering detailed information about the government’s move to transform the act.

Earlier on Monday, the Cabinet agreed in principle to replace the controversial Digital Security Act with the Cyber Security Act, amending some sections of the DSA.

After the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister Anisul Huq said they brought many changes to the sections of the DSA and changed its name to the Cyber Security Act.

He, however, said that the DSA was not scrapped but transformed.

The Digital Security Act was passed by the National Parliament on September 19, 2018.

The press conference was arranged to disclose the outcome of the BNP standing committee meeting held on Monday.