Law enforcers take position outside the office of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia at Gulshan in Dhaka on Saturday during a search. — Sanaul Haque
Dhaka Metropolitan Police raided Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office at Gulshan in Dhaka Saturday morning in search of ‘anti-state sticker’ and filmed each room in the building.
The search, however, found nothing, according to the seizure list prepared by the police.
BNP announced countrywide demonstrations for today protesting against the raid on Khaleda’s office.
Khaleda convened an urgent meeting of the BNP standing committee for today.
The meeting of the highest policy making body of the party, convened in the wake of the raid, would start at 8:30pm at Khaleda’s office, said BNP chief’s press wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.
Party leaders said that the police conducted the raid on the office for about three hours from about 6:45am while police officials claimed that the cops stayed there for one hour.
Movement on the road in front of the office was restricted by cops in riot gears.
Party leaders said that this was the first police raid on Khaleda’s office although law enforcers had cordoned off the office keeping the BNP chief confined to the office for 92 days from January 3, 2015, as the party were scheduled for staging programmes marking the anniversary of the January 5, 2014 elections, boycotted by all opposition parties.
A police team led by Gulshan division deputy commissioner SM Mostaque Ahamed Khan broke open the main entrance and other rooms in the building on Saturday as four office staff including Rashed Ahmed declined to open the door without permission from their employers.
Rashed said that cops broke open the doors as the staff wanted to see the search warrant or wait until party leaders arrived. He said that the cops search each of the rooms except the room of Khaleda.
He said that police filmed each room and floor and examined the footage of closed-circuit television cameras installed in and around the office in the diplomatic zone.
Rashed said, ‘At once, they wanted copies of Vision 2030. I replied all those booklets were distributed…They seized our phones and filmed everything.’
He alleged that the cops broke CCTV cameras or turned those to other directions.
‘We filmed what we did during the raid just to avoid any controversy in future,’ said Gulshan police station officer-in-charge Abu Bakar Siddique.
Police officials said that they conducted the operation following a search warrant issued by a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate on Friday following a petition filed by Gulshan police station officer-in-charge stating that the police had information that anti-state stickers and materials for sabotage were stored there.
A seizure list prepared by the Gulshan police station inspector (operations) Aminul Islam, however, read that they seized nothing during the search.
Abu Bakar told New Age, ‘We have just followed the court instruction.’
BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told reporters at Gulshan said that the police conducted the drive based on a general diary filed by an ‘unnamed’ individual.
He termed the raid as part of government conspiracy to silence Khaleda, disturb her mentally and humiliate her.
Leaders and activists of BNP and its front and associate organisations demonstrated at places in Dhaka city, including in front of the Gulshan office and BNP headquarters at Nayapaltan, protesting against the raid.
Police picked up five BNP activists from Nayapaltan at about office at about 11:00am, said BNP assistant office secretary Taiful Islam Tipu.
Politicians, including Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khalequzzaman, condemned the raid.
Rizvi, at a seminar at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, condemned the raid.
He alleged that police without informing any senior leaders of the party even its secretary general had conducted the raid on the office of the ‘largest political party’ based on a ‘false complaint’ filed in a general diary by an unnamed individual.
Rizvi said he wanted to know about the complainant but police did not inform them rather stated that they raided the office following an order of a magistrate.
‘Police now turn into the goons of Awami League and the prime minister,’ Rizvi alleged. It was done as the BNP chairperson raised voice for the restoration of democracy and people’s voting rights, he added.
BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed at the seminar said that the raid again proved that there was no politics but ‘ill-politics’ in the country.
He termed the incident as ‘inferior mentality’ and ‘politics of vendetta’.
New Age correspondent in Chittagong reported that Chittagong city unit of Jatiatabadi Chhatra Dal demonstrated in the port city protesting at the raid.
They brought out a procession from Chittagong press Club area that marched to Kazir Dewri intersection.
Source: New Age
