Khaleda to skip paying respects to language martyrs

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will not go to the Central Shaheed Minar to pay respects to the Language Martyrs in the first hour of the International Mother Language Day.

Her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan confirmed bdnews24.com of the no-show.

“(She) will not be going to the Shaheed Minar on the first hour. But BNP leaders will pay their respects in the morning. She will decide whether she will go with them.”

Meanwhile, a statement issued on the party’s letterhead on Thursday urged BNP leaders and workers to gather at Balaka Cinema Hall at the dawn on Saturday and from there go to the Central Shaheed Minar to pay their homage.

A number of senior party leaders said that the chairperson would not be visiting the Central Shaheed Minar due to the ongoing blockade.

Khaleda called the blockade on Jan 5 demanding snap polls under a nonpartisan caretaker body, after she was obstructed by the police to leave her office amid tension over programmes on Jan 5, the first anniversary of the last general election boycotted by the party and its partners.

She has not left the office even after removal of the barricade.

BNP leaders said since she called the blockade herself, she did not attend in the burial of her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco at Banani graveyard or the Bishwa Ijtema at Tongi.

Meanwhile, demands have been raised in Parliament to remove all political offices, including Khaleda’s, from the diplomatic zone in Gulshan because of security concerns.