Police besiege Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office

Police have cordoned off BNP chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office a day before the party plans agitations to mark the first anniversary of the last general elections.

Chief Political Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Jan 2015, 08:16 PM
Updated : 3 Jan 2015, 10:11 PM

The law keepers have also searched and locked the party's central office at Naya Paltan.

"Khaleda Zia has been besieged by the law-enforcing agencies since 11:40pm," her special aide Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas told reporters around 1am on Sunday.

The BNP and its allies boycotted the Jan 5 polls and have since been demanding a snap election.

They have planned a rally in Dhaka to mark the election anniversary but are yet to get police permission.

Earlier, detective police picked up BNP's Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi from the party's headquarters.

Biswas said Khaleda had urged her supporters to go ahead with the planned Jan 5 agitations.

Police barred the BNP chief from leaving office twice, bdnews24.com's Chief Political Correspondent Sumon Mahmud said from the scene.

A police van was placed in front of the office gate when Khaleda was going to Naya Paltan to see a sick Rizvi, he said.

Police told the former prime minister that her vehicle would not be allowed to leave.

The barricade was still in place around midnight when Khaleda got on her SUV to return home.

She waited in the car for around 10 minutes before going back to her office, Mahmud said.

Several other party leaders including Vice Chairman Selima Rahman, Khaleda's advisor Sabih Uddin Ahmed, central leaders Shirin Sultana, Rasheda Begum Heera, Sultana Ahmed, among others, were at the Gulshan office.

Police presence has been ramped up in the area.

At least seven police vehicles have been placed at different locations around the BNP chief's office.

Khaleda came to her office after 8pm on Saturday. Four police vans were immediately lined to throw up barricades in front of her house after she had left.

Before the last general elections, similar barricades were used in front of her house apparently to prevent her from attending a party rally.

Her aide Biswas condemned the move.

"The government has gone crazy," he said. "They don't have the minimum sense of democracy and courtesy."