BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia went to her Gulshan office this (Saturday) evening after a gap of 14 days and a week after the January-5 violent national election boycotted by her party and its allies. Khaleda, who lost her official portfolio as the opposition leader, reached her political office around 7:40pm in her personal vehicle with the national flag. However, two police vehicles escorted her office. She lost her official portfolio as the Parliament Secretariat on Saturday published a gazette naming Jatiya Party (JP) senior presidium member Raushan Ershad as leader of the opposition in the 10th Parliament. Khaleda had last attended her political office on December 26 when she exchanged greetings with members of the Christian community. As her motorcade reached the office, party leaders and activists, led by her advisers Dr Osman Farruk Sabihuddin Ahmed received her. Later, Khaleda sat in a meeting with Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jun. Khaleda Zia had virtually been confined to her Gulshan residence as the government took a hard-line following her announcement for ‘March for Democracy’ programme for December 29. Khaleda, in her separate statements, claimed that she had been kept under house arrest as she was not allowed to come out of it and her party leaders and activists barred from meeting her, an allegation turned down by the government. She was reportedly kept ‘under house arrest’ till January 7 as the barricades in front of her Gulshan residence were removed and the additional law enforcers deployed there also pulled out on December 8, nearly two weeks after the virtual siege. In the wake of the opposition’s announcement of staging a rally of March for Democracy programme at Nayapaltan on December 29 with the presence of the opposition leader, additional police had been deployed around Khaleda Zia’s residence on December 26. Police had also created barricades on two sides of the road in front of her residence and reportedly kept her confined to the house, restricting her movement outside of it. The government allegedly did not allow Khaleda to join the opposition’s programme on December 29 and 30 and come out of her house since the additional security has been taken around it. Only some delegations of journalists and lawyers and, the US and German ambassadors and the UK and Canadian High Commissioners were allowed to meet Khaleda at her residence during her reported captivity. – UNB
