The BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is not under “house-arrest”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told the foreign media.
In a briefing at Ganabhaban on Monday, a day after the national election, she rejected the BNP chief’s earlier claim of being put under house-arrest.
“How can she be under house-arrest,” she said, “when foreign dignitaries and her advisers met her.”Representatives of the BBC, AP, AFP, Xinhua, the New York Times and several Indian and German media joined the special briefing for them about 30 minutes before she addresses all media.
Earlier, Khaleda Zia had said in a statement that she had been placed under house-arrest and urged people to resist the Jan 5 elections at any cost.
She had been prevented by the police to leave her Gulshan residence on Dec 29, the day she had called “March for Democracy” programme to stop the elections boycotted by her party.
She did not emerge from her house since then, but British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson and US ambassador Dan Mozena had held meetings with her at her residence.
Khaleda Zia’s advisers were also present during the meetings.
Hasina said her fight with Khaleda Zia was “absolutely ideological”, and not personal, when a foreign journalist raised the point.
She said since they were two women, male-dominated society saw the differences as personal vendetta.-bdnews24.com
