Police barricades on the approach roads to the entrance of Bnp chief Begum Khaleda Zia were lifted in the early hours on Monday as dramatically as those were introduced on January 03 last when she wanted to go to the central office of her party at Naya Paltan late that evening.
The unannounced confinement of the 3-time former prime minister of the country thus ended amid speculations that she might be taken into custody if the transport blockade programme of her party and alliance was not withdrawn.
Earlier on Sunday the telecommunication regulatory commission had stopped the viber and tango frequencies of the mobile telephone operators. Some media journalists of different television channels and radio stations who remained on duty near Khaleda’s Gulshan office said these frequencies had been used by the Bnp leader to communicate with the leaders and workers of her party and alliance as the land telephone and cell phones were intercepted by intelligence agencies.
BTRC did not assign the reason for closure of these frequencies but the action preceded the withdrawal of extra police and vehicular barricades on way to Khaleda’s Gulshan office.
According to available information extra police guards posted at three stages beyond the gate of the office at Gulshan Road No. 86 up to its north and the south ends were removed at about 2-30 am on Monday leaving there less than half a dozen members of the police force who as a matter of route used to be on duty.
Along with the extra policemen, the police vans and water canon that used to barricade the road from the two sides were also removed.
In the morning a bus full of female police came to the gate of Khaleda’s office at 8 am. The bus waited there for about 10 minutes before speeding away.
Movement of transports to and from the road that remained closed for the last 15 days was also restored.
The Bnp chairperson had gone to her party office on January 03. She was obstructed from going to her Naya Paltan central office at about 11pm that night. Subsequently on 05 December she made two attempts to go out of the office and join a scheduled programme of rally to observe what the party and the 20-Party Alliance termed ‘Democracy Killing Day’.
Bnp and its allies had called the rally to mark the first year of the 05 January 2014 elections that was boycotted by most political parties including the Bnp. Leaders of the alliance said they had withdrawn movement last year because the government had assured fresh elections soon after the 05 January election that was termed as mandatory. The people did not vote in that election – 154 seats were declared elected unopposed – in 146 seats the presence of voters was not more than 5 percent, and there was no voter in 40 of those, they pointed out.
The government had called ‘Victory of Democracy Day’ on 05 January last, announced a rally at the Suhrawardy Udyan, blamed the Bnp for ‘committing a political mistake’ by not taking part in the last election and declared that there was no question of dialogue on fresh election. There could be dialogue only on elections to be held after five years in 2019 and that too when time for the said election would come.
As police imposed ban on the 05 January rally and prevented Khaleda Zia from coming out of her party office, using pepper spray at one stage on her party workers inside the office compound, the Bnp chief announced the transport blockade programme for an indefinite period.
Tv and radio journalists had set up a veritable day-time camp in front of Khaleda’s Gulshan party office for the last one fortnight. Television cameras were lined up behind a rope-fence on the other side of the office’s gate on road No. 86. The journalists mostly spent idle time and became active whenever any visitor came there. To pass the time they were seen playing cards on the pavement of the road. One journalist said they were served food at lunch time from Khaleda’s office most of the days, as meals supplied by Bnp leaders and workers were more than adequate. No restaurant was there in the vicinity of road No. 86. At times food was served also to on-duty policemen. – Staff Reporter
