BNP office lifeless

BNP’s main offices in Dhaka’s Naya Paltan seemed lifeless on the morning of the first strike called by the 20-Party alliance it leads.

Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was accompanied to the office by few other party leaders.

But there were hardly any activity by party supporters in the area.

A large group of police and para-military troops were seen surrounding the BNP office.

The BNP-led alliance called the dawn-to-dusk countrywide strike in protest against the 16th Amendment of the Constitution passed in Parliament on Wednesday to empower MPs to remove top judges.

The BNP spokesperson entered the office early morning while police and RAB stood in line on both sides of the street it overlooked.

Armoured vehicles and prison vans were parked nearby.

The office’s collapsible gate, which remained locked during the strikes that marred the run up to the Jan 5 polls, was seen open on Monday.

But police, who have usually stopped party leaders from entering the Naya Paltan office on days of strike before the Jan 5 polls, were not doing that anymore.

Mirza Fakhrul along with BNP Joint Secretary General Md Shahjahan, Economic Affairs Secretary Abdus Salam, Central Committee member Belal Hossain, Metropolitan leader Shamsul Alam, Assistant Office Secretaries Abdul Latif Jony, Shamimur Rahman Shamim and Asadul Karim Shahin were seen inside the Naya Paltan office.

But few party workers could be seen in the area

“The acting secretary general instructed workers to make the strike effective in their own areas instead of coming here,” Shahjahan explained.

Sayed Ahmed, general secretary of a faction of Samyabadi Dal, came to the office with some 20 activists around 8:30 am.

“The acting secretary told them the same thing. He’s told them to not bring the activists here but make the strike effective in their own areas,” he said.

Paltan Police OC Morshed Alam said there have been no disruptions in the area since morning.

Several bombs had gone off in a sparse area near BNP’s main offices at 7pm on Sunday, police said.

The strike followed Jamaat-e-Islami’s 24-hour strikes on Thursday and Sunday to call for the release of Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a top party leader convicted of war crimes during 1971 Liberation War.

The Appellate Division in its verdict reduced Sayedee’s punishment for looting, murder, arson genocide during Liberation War from death to life in prison until death on Wednesday.

Monday’s strike was a first by the BNP-led alliance after Awami League returned to power through the 10th national election on Jan 5.

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat called the first strike under the new government last month to protest against the murder of one of its top leaders Nurul Islam Farooqi.