BNP standing committee member Dr RA Ghani and former party MP Sarder Sakhawat Hossain Bakul were arrested from Gulshan area in the city on Wednesday. Law enforcers also detained BNP female MP Shammi Akhter the same evening. Witnesses said members of Dhaka Metropolitan Police picked up Shammi from near the residence of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia around 8:25 pm while Bakul around 6:25pm. Six leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student associate body of opposition BNP, were also held from the Gulshan-2 area. Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Dr RA Gani was released shortly after his detention from the same area. The law enforcers detained them while they were going to meet opposition leader Khaleda Zia at her residence. The detention of the opposition leaders and activists came ahead of the opposition’s ‘March for Democracy’ programme scheduled to be held in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office on Sunday.
Police sources said, a team of detective branch (DB) of police arrested RA Ghani from in front of opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office at about 8:00pm.
Sakhawat Hossain Bakul was arrested from in front Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence at about 6:30pm while he was entering the house.
When contacted, Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of police (media wing) confirmed the arrest of Bakul saying that a DB team arrested him and took him in their custody.
He, however, denied to make any comment about the reason behind arrest of Bakul.
The arrest of Ghani and Bakul followed deployment of additional law enforcers in front of Khaleda’s residence the night after she announced new opposition programme for March towards Dhaka at a press conference on Tuesday.
Bakul was elected MP from Narsingdi-4 constituency. Meanwhile, police is not allowing anyone to enter or get out of the residence of the opposition leader.
