The BNP now plans to hear the opinion of its grassroots-level leaders and activists about the next course of action in the prevailing situation, as the party is passing through a critical juncture after a lower court sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

As part of the plan, the party's central leaders, including members of the standing committee, vice-chairmen, advisers, and joint secretaries general and organising secretaries, would tour cities and districts and join workers' meetings, according to party sources.

The party has already formed 37 teams, headed by central leaders, said a senior leader of the party.

The BNP office on Tuesday started sending letters to the heads of the 37 teams, said the leader, preferring anonymity.

The letters, signed by the party's senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, asked the committee heads to complete organising tours of cities and districts and hold workers' meetings by April 10.

The organising teams, comprising central leaders, will tour cities and districts and join workers' meetings. This is considered important to strengthen the party organisation, the letter added.

A senior leader said the divisional organising secretary will coordinate the meeting in cities and districts.

Members of the national executive committee, former lawmakers, MP candidates, leaders of districts, upazilas, pourasabhas, upazila chairmen, vice-chairmen, poura mayors and presidents, secretaries and organsing secretaries of front organistaions in the respective city and district will attend the meeting, said the leader.

Talking to The Independent, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (Retd) Mahbubur Rahman confirmed that the party's central leaders would tour divisional and district headquarters and hold workers' meetings to strengthen the organisational base.

He said the planned tour would consolidate the organisational base at the grassroots level, help find out problems, and motivate the party leaders and activists at the field level.

Party leaders and workers will also be rejuvenated by participating in meetings across the country, he added.

Replying to a question, the former Army chief said he is sick, but still may visit his own district, Dinajpur, during the programme.

The organsing secretary of Dhaka division, Fazlul Haque Milon, said the tour will concentrate on organisational affairs, along with the matter of releasing the party chairperson on bail.

The workers' meetings will also discuss the latest development in the political arena and hear the opinion of the grassroots level leaders on what should be the next political course of action, he added.

The assistant office secretary of the BNP, Taiful Islam Tipu, said the party has formed 37 teams to tour cities and districts.

A lower court sentenced BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sent her to the old central jail on February 8. The appellate division of the Supreme Court on Monday stayed till May 10 the High Court order that granted Khaleda bail for four months.

The party is carrying out countrywide peaceful protests, but has been denied permission at least thrice to hold a public meeting at Suhrawardy Udyan in the last one and a half months.

Meanwhile, BNP senior leaders yesterday briefed some foreign diplomats on the country's overall situation and the development over its Chairperson Khaleda Zia's case in which she was sentenced to five years' jail, adds UNB.

The BNP leaders, led by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, sat with the diplomats around 4:10 pm at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office.

Apart from Fakhrul, BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, chairperson's advisers Reaz Rahman and Sabihuddin Ahmed were, among others, present at the meeting, said BNP chairperson's media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

He said diplomats from around 15 countries, including the USA, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kuwait and the EU, attended the nearly one-and-a-half-hour meeting.

This was the second meeting between BNP leaders and diplomats since Khaleda was sent to jail in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on February 8.

Five days after Khaleda was imprisoned, senior BNP leaders had a meeting with the diplomats of around 15 countries on March 13 at the same venue.