Office raid illegal: BNP

Senior BNP leader Rafiqul Islam Mia on Monday termed the police raid on the party headquarters ‘illegal and disgusting’.

He said the raid was the first of its kind since the party was founded in 1978.

Mia’s reaction came after police conducted a search operation at BNP central office at the capital’s Naya Paltan and held a large number of leaders and activists of the party, including its acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Police carried out the two-hour-long raid after opposition activists hurled brickbats at them. Arally of the 18-Party Alliance was foiled following crude bomb explosions there when Alamgir was addressing it.

Mia, a member of the National Standing Committee, told bdnews24.com: “The disgusting chapter that the police have introduced by entering the office of one of the largest political parties without any warrant is unprecedented.”

“Police cannot enter the office of any political party this way. It’s an illegal intrusion.”

He said office of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal had been raided in 1974.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Mehedi Hassan said: “The raid was conducted asfter crude bombs and brickbats were hurled at police, shops ransacked, panic created and public property damaged.”

He claimed BNP leaders and activists put life of the members of the law-enforcing agencies deployed on the rooftops of different high-rises in danger.

The police officer said 10 crude bombs were recovered from the BNP office.

Mia, however, rejected the bomb recovery saying it was all stage-managed.