Khaleda tour turns into election showdown
Khaleda arrives in Coxs Bazar to visit Rohingyas
Rafiqul Islam Azad from Cox’s Bazar
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zias road trip to Coxs Bazar to visit Rohingya refugees has turned into a pre-election showdown. Hundreds of party supporters were found standing for hours by the roadside all along her route from Dhaka to Chittagong and from Chittagong to Coxs Bazar to greet the former premier. Local leaders and supporters held up banners and festoons bearing photographs of prospective party candidates for the next general polls and chanted slogans.
The gathering of supporters from Chittagong to Coxs Bazar was so huge that it took about eight hours for Khaledas motorcade to reach the seaside town. BNP standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury admitted that there was an election-time flavour to the chairpersons road tour.
The BNP chief resumed her journey with a big motorcade from the Chittagong Circuit House at 12.20 pm and reached Coxs Bazar around 7.30 pm. It took about 50 minutes to cross Karnaphuli Bridge from Chittagong Circuit House, as thousands of people stood by the roadside to get a glimpse of
Khaleda. In Chittagong, the party supporters stood chanting slogans
in favour of Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Abdullah Al Noman, and Dr Shahadat Hossain Khan, along with Khaleda and Tarique Rahman. The party supporters were also found chanting slogans in favour of the prospective candidates in different places on the way to Coxs Bazar, including Patiya, Chandonaish, Padua, Lohagora, Satkania and Chakoria. The prospective candidates include Nazmul Mostafa Amin at Lohagora and Javed and Salahuddin Ahmed at Chakoria and Mamaching, respectively, in Bandarban.
Khaleda is scheduled to visit the Rohingya refugee camps at Teknaf today morning and distribute relief materials among them. Around seven lakh Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, following the atrocities in Myanmar.
Khaleda, who was in London for three months for medical treatment, left Dhaka for Coxs Bazar on Saturday, 10 days after her arrival from London. Her motorcade came under attack at Feni on Saturday. Some people, including several journalists, were injured. She is scheduled to return to Dhaka on Tuesday.
Meanwhile UNB adds: BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia arrived Coxs Bazar from Chittagong yesterday night to visit Rohingya camps in Ukhia upazila and distribute relief materials among the Myanmars displaced nationals.
Amid rousing receptions by her party leaders and activists at different points from Chittagong city to Coxs Bazar district town, the BNP chief arrived at the Circuit House here around 8pm without facing any untoward incident unlike Saturday. She will stay overnight at the Circuit House.
The BNP chief will go to Ukhia this noon to visit four Rohingya camps and a medical camp set up by pro-BNP physicians body, Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB). She will return to Chittagong later in the evening.
The BNP chief is scheduled to distribute relief materials among 10,000 Rohingya families who fled to Bangladesh amid persecution by Myanmar military.
