Six activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (Bnp) were picked up from the party’s Naya Paltan central office premises soon after its chairperson Begum Khaleda set off at the close of the Pahela Baishakh, Bangla New Year’s Day celebrations on late Tuesday afternoon.
Khaleda Zia went to the Bnp central office about 11 months after going there when the office ransacked and put under lock and key was reopened in the second quarter of 2014. The office then was in a shambles as law enforcers had broken open doors of its rooms before doing mass arrest of its leaders including secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir before shutting its main gate.On Tuesday the Bnp chairperson went there 9 days after its was reopened on 05 April following the withdrawal of police siege that was laid on January 03 night after picking up the party joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and driving other activists out.
At Tuesday’s Pohela Baishakh programme, organised by the JSSS (Nationalist Cultural Organisation), Khaleda called upon the people to vote for Mirza Abbas and Tabith Awal, mayoral candidates in Dhaka, and mark a silent revolution by voing the ex-mayor of Chittagong back to power. Mirza Abbas faces many cases and awaits High Court decision on his interim bail petition tomorrow. At least one-third of the some 134 Bnp-backed councillor candidates are also hiding for cases filed against them during the recent movement.
The identitied of the six Bnp activists who were picked up from near the party central office on late Wednessday afternoon could not be known, but sources said they were hauled up by plainclothes men. – New Desk
