BNP on Monday termed Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan’s move to besiege its chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office “utterly provocative” and the attempt was made in a bid to “kill” her.
In a joint statement, BNP Dhaka City convener Mirza Abbas and Habibun Nabi Khan Sohel said the Shipping Minister staged the demonstration near the BNP chief’s Gulshan office at the behest of the government’s high-ups.
The two leaders warned the minister of dire consequences for his threat to arrest Khaleda.
“Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan tried to gherao BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office with some hired people. We strongly condemn and protest it. The move to lay a siege to Khaleda Zia was taken in a bid to kill her,” the statement said.
The Bnp Dhaka city unit leaders issued the statement from undisclosed places as they cannot come out in the open because the law enforcing agencies are carrying out joint or separate drives to foil their demonstrations and arrest them. The ministers including Shahjahan Khan on the other hand are on the one hand heading government offices from where they take measures against opposition programmes and are also holding street programmes against the opposition without facing or taking cognizance of any legal or moral barrier.
Abbas and Sohel said the minister showed his audacity by threatening to arrest the BNP chief. “The democracy-loving people will very soon give a befitting reply to it through the movement.”
Earlier in the day, a group of people, led by Shajahan Khan under the banner of Sramik-Karmachari-Peshajibi-Muktijoddha Somonnoy Parishad, staged a demonstration near Khaleda’s Gulshan-2 office after police blocked their marched towards the office.
Addressing the programme, the minister threatened that people will take the BNP chairperson to Kashimpur Central Jail if she does not call off the hartal and transport blockade immediately.
The minister said they came to besiege Khaleda’s office to give her a message that they will remain on the streets as long as the BNP chief her son Tarique Rahman and Jamaat-e-Islami stop subversive acts in the name of hartal and blockade and politics.
Five people were injured as miscreants tossed five crude bombs at the procession of Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan in the city’s Gulshan area before the rally.
Witnesses said some activists under the banner of ‘Sramik Karmachari Muktijoddha Samanay Parishad’ brought out the procession from Gulshan Central Park to lay a siege to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office demanding her arrest and an end to violence in the name of hartal and blockade.
As the procession reached near Metropolitan Shopping Mall around 12:15 pm, some miscreants hurled five crude bombs at the rear of the procession, leaving five people injured.
Among the injured, Babul Ahmed was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital while the others to United Hospital.
After the incident, when several thousand workers, led by Shajahan Khan, tried to move towards BNP Chairperson’s office carrying banners and festoons police obstructed them at road No 86.
Abbas and Sohel also criticised the government for stopping food supply to the BNP chief’s office and demanded the government immediately withdraw ant restriction on food supply to Khaleda’s office. – News Desk
