SSF PROTECTION FOR KHALEDA
BNP wants speaker to intervene
Staff correspondent
Lawmakers of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday urged Jatiya Sangsad speaker Abdul Hamid to use his good offices to restore protection of Special Security Force for the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia.
‘We have requested the speaker to use his good offices to restore the Special Security Force protection for the leader of the opposition, who is a part of the parliament, as her security is under threat,’ senior opposition lawmaker and BNP vice-chairman MK Anwar told reporters after a meeting with the speaker at his office on Wednesday evening.
‘The home minister has admitted that the law and order has deteriorated. The lawmen had unearthed that a militant group tried to carry out a bomb attack on her [Khaleda] election rally in Comilla before the [December 29] general elections. She has become almost insecure after the withdrawal of SSF protection,’ Anwar, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, said.
The government will be held responsible if she is exposed to security hazards, he warned.
When asked what the speaker told them, Anwar, also a former minister, said, ‘He [speaker] said he will try’.
The government withdrew the SSF protection, which is generally provided for the leader of the opposition for three months during the general elections, on Tuesday.
Speaker Abdul Hamid told reporters, ‘I have
told them [BNP lawmakers] that I have nothing to do in this regard [restoration of the SSF protection].’
‘But I have assured them that I shall convey their request to the prime minister,’ he said.
The government on Monday night deployed eight uniformed police as house guards at Khaleda Zia’s Dhaka Cantonment residence, sources close to her said.
Two armed plainclothesmen from the police special branch accompanied her when she went to her Gulshan office Wednesday evening, they said.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
