Nayapaltan central office reopens after 47 days
The government seems to soften its stance on BNP as it on Thursday allowed BNP activists to enter their central office at Nayapaltan in the capital after 47 days.
The development followed BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Wednesday press conference from where she urged the government to sit for a dialogue and announced some soft programmes instead of hartal and blockade that crippled the normal life across the country for nearly two months.
Normalcy returned to the Naya Paltan headquarters of the BNP. The opposition rank and file entered the office without any resistance.
Some members of the staff of the party office, led by its assistant office secretary, Abdul Latif Jony, BNP youth front leader Abdus Salam and others, unlocked the main gate of the office at around 11:25am.
After effecting entry, some leaders, including Shamsul Alam Tofa, Rafique Shikdar, student leader Nurul Huda and others, entered the office after the police barricades were removed.
Normalcy was restored at the BNP central office and its adjoining areas, following the arrival of the party’s activists and leaders, including acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
On the midnight of November 28, law enforcement personnel launched a massive crackdown inside the party’s Naya Paltan central office and ransacked its official equipment. The office’s interiors were also damaged.
BNP joint secretary-general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, who is also the office secretary, was arrested from the party office on that night. Since then, the law enforcement personnel have maintained close vigil on the party office and no one was allowed to enter it.
Alamgir went to the party office at around 1:25 pm, as the High Court, directed law enforcement agencies not to arrest or harass Alamgir in connection with three cases, including the Shahbagh case and Bangla Motor arson attack, till probe reports are submitted.
The HC came up with the order after holding the hearing on three separate petitions filed by Alamgir, seeking a direction to the government not to arrest or harass him in connection with the cases.
At one stage, Alamgir exchanged views with the reporters and stated that his party is keen to meet the ruling Awami League (AL) to end the prevailing political gridlock, in order to give a boost to the country’s peace and progress.
“The Awami League-led government is blatantly illegal. Despite that, we are keen on meeting the government as talks cannot be held with an immaterial subject,” Alamgir said.
“The government should first come forward for talks even though these are so-called parleys,” he said, while talking to reporters at the party’s Naya Paltan central office.
“The state is running in a peculiar manner,” he said, adding that the present cabinet has been formed through a “deceptive trick”.
According to constitutional obligations, the existence of a strong opposition party in Parliament is a must. But the public can see those who have become the Cabinet members of the government, he added.
Describing the government as a fascist one, Alamgir said a conspiracy has been hatched to oust the politics of the nationalist party from the country. To make the mission a success, the government is harassing BNP leaders and activists in many ways, he alleged.
“We have been suffering from repression sponsored by the government for a long time. It has engaged in killings and forced disappearances,” he added.
People of the country never did accept any conspiracy in the past and will not do so in future. The country’s democracy, which has been destroyed, will be retrieved with the people’s collective efforts, he vowed.
Several octogenarian BNP leaders have been kept behind bars without any justification. Their trial proceedings are being intentionally delayed, he alleged.
The BNP’s headquarters have been cordoned off and isolated for a long time by the government, which has deliberately deployed law enforcement personnel, he pointed out. Such steps are totally immoral and undemocratic in a democratic country, he alleged.
He accused the government of carrying out acts of terrorism on nationalist party activists and said the 18 Party Alliance’s leaders and activists are being implicated with fake and motivated charges. Alamgir condemned the government and noted that the Liberation War was carried out in 1971 for the sake of democracy. The goal of the ongoing anti-government movement will be met and the victory of democracy will be immediately ensured, he predicted.
Several BNP leaders, including Nazrul Islam Manzu and the party’s youth front leader, Abdus Salam, and several members of the staff of the party office were present at the office.
Alamgir, along with his party men and members of the office staff, inspected all sections of the party office
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Thursday granted bail to BNP Vice-chairman Selima Rahman and former FBCCI president Abdul Awal Mintoo in separate cases.
Selima was accused of attempted murder of deputy commissioner of Ramna division while Mintoo was charged for torching a car and attempting to kill a policeman during the May 5 Hefajat-e-Islam’s rally in Motijheel.
Following the order, there is no bar for Selima to get released from jail while Mintoo needs bail in four more cases, filed with Motijheel Police Station, to secure freedom.
In another development, The High Court yesterday directed law enforcers not to arrest or harass BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in three cases including the Shahbagh and Bangla Motor arson attack cases till submission of probe reports.
The HC came up with the order after holding hearing on three separate petitions filed by Fakhrul seeking direction on the government not to arrest or harass him in the cases.
The three cases were filed with Ramna and Shahbagh police stations.
Four persons were killed and several were injured in an arson attack on a bus in Shahbagh on November 30.
In Bangla Motor arson attack, a police constable was killed and two others injured. Fakhrul’s name was not mentioned in the first information report of the cases, said advocate Sagir Hossain Leon, a lawyer for the BNP leader, adding that he was implicated in the three cases later. The BNP leader, who was hiding for few months, appeared before the HC bench during hearing of his petitions.
Courtesy of The Independent
