Dhaka – British High Commissioner Robert Gibson met BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence, now under virtual siege, on
Monday afternoon.
The British High Commissioner entered Khaleda’s home around 5:25 pm and left it around 6:40 pm without making any comment to the reporters
waiting in front of the Khaleda’s residence.
Before the British High Commissioner’s arrival, BNP vice-chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and Khaleda’s two advisers Riaz Rahman and
Sabihuddin Ahmed were allowed to enter Khaleda’s house.
This was the first time BNP leaders were allowed to enter the house of Khaleda since the virtual siege to her residence on December 25 in an
effort to prevent her from joining the abortive ‘March for Democracy’ programme.
However, the additional security force which was deployed around the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan residence is still there till Monday
evening.
The law enforcers put barricades on two sides of the road in front of her house. Several sand-laden trucks were kept parked there in a
haphazard way.
A large number of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members and plainclothes police were also there.
Earlier, on Sunday afternoon, Khaleda walked out of the house carrying the national flag at 2:50pm and got into her car to join the abortive
March for Democracy programme at Nayapaltan, but failed to do so due to police barricades in front of her residence.
Barred by the law enforcers, she got down from the car at 3:35pm, walked out of the house lawn and briefed journalists. She later said
the March for Democracy would continue.
Additional law enforcers were deployed around Khaleda Zia’s residence on December 25, hours after Khaleda Zia’s announcement of the ‘March
for Democracy’ programme for December 29. – UNB
