BNP holds demonstration, accuses govt of putting obstruction
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday staged demonstrations across the country to protest against the police raid at the party chairpersons Gulshan office. Party leaders alleged that they could not held protest rallies in different places in the city and some districts due to police obstruction and attacks on their activists.
Police attacked and obstructed BNP leaders and activists when they tried to stage demonstrations in the city and elsewhere in the country. A number of party leaders and activists from different places have been arrested, alleged BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
In an urgent press conference at partys central office in the evening, Rizvi alleged that the law enforcers arrested at least 17 BNP leaders and activists from different parts of the city and districts.
The arrested leaders include the BNPs Dhaka South unit organising secretray Tanveer Ahmed Robin, Motijheel BNP leader Swapan, Shampur thana BNP leaders Shawkat Ali and Mintu, Shahbagh thana BNP leaders Ibrahim, Babu, Rabiul and Lucky, Kamrangirchar thana Sramik Dal leader Jasimuddin, Dhaka city (East) Chhatra Dal leader Giasuddin Manik, Faridpur district Secchasebok Dal leaders Liton Biswas and Alamgir Hossain Raju, Faridpur district JCD leaders Mojammel Hossain Mithu and Ariful Islam, and Kustia BNP leaders Iajuddin, Shah Alam and Monwar Hossain.
Rizvi also alleged that the police suddenly swooped in on the leaders and activists while they tried to carry out a procession near Mugdhapara bazaar, led by the partys Dhaka South city unit senior vice-president Shamsul Huda.
He accused the government of trying to foil the BNP programme by using police and party cadres. The voter-less government continues to carry out crackdown on opposition parties, he said.
He demanded immediately release of the leaders and activists who were arrested yesterday.
Kazi Abul Bashar, general secretary of the Dhaka city (South) unit of BNP, claimed that party leaders and activists staged demonstration at different thana areas by defying the police obstruction and attacks. The administration had deployed police at different strategic points in the city so that BNP leaders and activists cannot hold any rally and bring out processions, he added.
The BNP had announced the programme on Wednesday, as the party was denied holding its planned rally at Suhrawardy Udyan to register its protest against the Gulshan incident.
