Police leave Khaleda’s home

Police deputed at the house of the BNP chairperson have been withdrawn as Khaleda Zia continues to live in her office.

A seven-strong police team was deployed to provide security to the house, ‘Firoza’, situated at Road No. 79 at Gulshan in Dhaka.
 
The team was seen preparing to leave around 8:30pm on Sunday.
 
Its leader ASI Zahirul Haque told bdnews24.com they had been deployed there until now to provide VVIP protection.
 
“But now we’ve been ordered to report to the Police Lines. That’s why we are leaving,” he said.
 
No comments from any top police official on the issue were available at the moment.
 
However, Khaleda’s personal security personnel were still at her house.
 
The former prime minister has been living at this Gulshan house since she had to leave the one inside Dhaka Cantonment four years ago.

The BNP chief has been staying at her political office on the Road No. 86 at Gulshan-2 since Jan 3.

A group of police officials have been regulating the entry there for quite some time.

Special Branch (SB) and Detective Branch (DB) officers are also deployed there.

Police were controlling the movement on Road No. 86 by using barricades on both ends of the street as well.

The law-enforcers, meanwhile, got orders from a Dhaka court on Sunday to search Khaleda’s office after police said there could be explosives and fugitives there.

Police had asked for the search warrant in an explosives case filed over the bomb attack on Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan’s march at Gulshan on Feb 16.

Last week, another court had issued an arrest warrant for Khaleda in the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases.

Nearly 50 people including several leaders and activists, security personnel, and office staff members are staying with the former prime minister at her office.

Police have kept the office surrounded since Jan 3 when they barred Khaleda from leaving her office. 

Although, the barricade was lifted several days later, she continued to stay there. She even bade farewell to her son Arafat Rahman Coco, who died in Malaysia, from her office.

Police started controlling access to the office again from Feb 11. Power lines were cut once, and internet and telephone connections were allegedly snapped for sometime. 

They are also not allowing food to be supplied from outside and only allowing family members to visit and bring food for her.