British High Commissioner Robert Gibson had a meeting with ruling Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam at the latter’s house for about an hour on Tuesday. The UK envoy came out of the house in a SUV at 3:41pm after the meeting. He had entered the house at 2:51pm.
The envoy did not speak to reporters waiting outside the house of the senior Awami League leader at Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. He had avoided media even after his meeting with Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia on Monday.A spokesperson of the British High Commission had later told journalists that the envoy had met Khaleda to get updates about the latest situation after he returned from his Christmas vacation.
Opposition BNP, however, had not issued any statement on the meeting that was held amid the tight police security around Khaleda’s house and countrywide concern over the opposition’s agitation to foil the Jan 5 polls.
Western countries had been urging two major political parties– BNP and Awami League– for talks to end the crisis stemmed from their sharp discord on the nature of the polls-time government.
But they failed to reach a consensus to end the crisis, which had prompted the Brtish envoy to issue a statement expressing disappointment over the stalemate on Nov 9.-bdnews24.com
