BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi breaks open the lock of the BNP office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka on Thursday. — Md Saurav
A group of leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party entered its central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka on Thursday, two months and 13 days after the office was closed by law enforcement agencies.
The group, led by the party’s senior joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, broke open the lock of the main entrance of the central office building and entered the office.
The leaders and activists of the party entered the office at about 10:45am, hours before the party was scheduled to hold a media presentation on the ‘7th January Farcical Election’ at the central office.
They entered the office while shouting various slogans in the name of party founder Ziaur Rahman and chairperson Khaleda Zia.
‘We entered BNP’s central office by breaking the lock. A massive rally was foiled through a brutal crackdown by the government’s subservient law-enforcement agencies on October 28…later police locked the office,’ said Rizvi.
After the party’s grand rally was foiled halfway through on October 28 at Naya Paltan amid clashes with police, the collapsible gate of the BNP’s office was closed with the deployment of a huge number of law enforcers in the area.
Members of the Criminal Investigation Department marked the areas in front of the main gate of the BNP office with crime scene tape inscribed with ‘Do not cross’ to collect evidence for an investigation into severe political violence.
Later, the CID’s Crime Scene Unit collected evidence from the site and removed the crime scene tape.
Following the clashes, law enforcers launched a crackdown on senior BNP leaders and activists and arrested BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and several other leaders, forcing most of them to go into hiding to avoid arrest.
Though thousands of BNP leaders and activists brought out a Victory Day rally on December 16 in Naya Paltan, they did not reopen their central office.
BNP finally reopened the office four days after the 12th parliamentary election, which was boycotted by most opposition, including the party.
Addressing the press conference at the office, BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan said on Thursday that the results of the 12th general election were decided in a ‘high-level table’ meeting in Dhaka.
‘Who would get how many votes and who would be elected were decided there,’ he said.
Moyeen Khan also alleged that the government seized the central office of the BNP on October 28 through a crackdown.
Expressing concerns over the state of democracy in Bangladesh, he said that Bangladesh’s democracy is currently in a dire state.
‘Millions sacrificed their blood for our democracy, not for this current situation. But the government believes in one-party rule,’ he said.
The BNP leader further said that the people of this country rejected the government by boycotting the elections held on January 7.
Both local and international media reported that the election was marked by irregularities and was not conducted in a fair manner, he said.
‘Bangladesh democracy is dead today. Millions of people gave their blood for democracy, not for this state of affairs. The government believes in one-party rule,’ he said.
‘We are in the movement to restore democracy and will remain. We do politics not for power but for the people. We will create a voting environment,’ he added.
He presented 250 incidents of election irregularities at the press conference and said that another 250 would be presented soon.
BNP standing committee members Nazrul Islam Khan and Selima Rahman, vice chairmen M Shahjahan and Nitai Roy Chowdhury, advisory council members Zainul Abdin Farroque and Zainul Abedin, and joint secretary general Mahbub Uddin Khokon were present at the press conference.
New Age
