Exactly six months ago, BNP’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who is now in prison charged with subversive acts in nearly a dozen new cases,  expressed his apprehension that the government wanted to keep BNP out of the election. Police reportedly filed these new cases after the violent ending of BNP’s grand rally on October 28. He already had about 84 cases pending, stemming from his party’s campaign for reintroduction of election time caretaker government since 2013, after the ruling party Awami League unilaterally abolished it, relying on its super majority in parliament and a controversial court verdict.  On July 15, Fakhrul told journalists that by randomly implicating BNP leaders and activists in false cases, reviving cold cases, and fast tracking trials the government wanted to ensure it would keep BNP out of the election race. By the time polling schedule was announced, his apprehension became true, as most of his senior colleagues and thousands o...