Police 'pick up' Rizvi, raid BNP headquarters

Police have raided the BNP's Naya Paltan headquarters after picking up Ruhul Kabir Rizvi from there.

The BNP joint secretary general was taken away around Saturday midnight, bdnews24.com's Chief Political Correspondent Sumon Mahmud said from the scene.

They started the search around 12:30am on Sunday, he said.

Rizvi was lying in bed on the second floor and put on an IV drip. He was the only senior leader to stay in the central office over the last several days.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University's gastroenterology department head Prof ASMA Raihan examined Rizvi around 11:30pm after he had fallen sick.

Mahmud said, "Policemen entered the headquarters and one of them told Rizvi 'sir you're ill. You won't be treated here. We'll take you wherever you think fit.'

"Rizvi asked them where they wanted to take him. One of the detectives replied 'we can take you to Square Hospital if you want'."

TV footage showed Rizvi being taken away by detective police in an ambulance.

But Paltan Police Station's duty officer Munirul Islam told bdnews24.com that the BNP leader had not been arrested.

"He has been taken away for treatment," he said.

The incident takes place as the BNP and the ruling Awami are at loggerheads over programmes to mark the first anniversary of the last general election.

Police are yet to permit the BNP rally in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, police presence has been bolstered around party chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office.

After a nearly half-hour-long search, police locked the BNP offices.