Police pullout from Khaleda’s office raises questions

Khaleda Zia is yet to react to the government's decision to end her confinement.

Special Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 Jan 2015, 11:48 AM
Updated : 19 Jan 2015, 06:08 PM

It is not clear whether she would welcome it. There is no sign yet on any let-up on the indefinite transport blockade.

That may continue until the government initiates a fully fledged dialogue with fresh elections on the agenda, BNP sources have indicated.

But the police pullout only exposes the government's contention that the former prime minister had never been 'confined' and had only been provided huge security because she faced threats.

When the police withdrew their heavy vehicles that had been used to block the street leading to Khaleda's Gulshan office, they left behind only a small posse of four-five policemen in front of it.

So if the enormous deployment around her office was in response to a huge security threat Khaleda is supposed to have been facing, the question that will now be asked is whether that huge threat has suddenly vanished altogether.

Or else why such a small contingent of policemen left at Gulshan Road no 86 now!

The threat that one has talked about is perhaps related to disclosures by JMB militants arrested in India who confessed they intended to kill both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the BNP chairperson.

So has anything happened on the JMB front in the past 24 hours that the threat has evaporated so completely?

The police have not really given an explanation about the withdrawal of the huge posse last night. They have a good reason not to give one.

The problem the DMP faces is if it now says Khaleda no longer faces a threat, they will have to allow her to hold rallies and meetings.

That may only bolster the agitation that the police are tasked to contain.

On the other hand, the signal emanating from the withdrawal of the huge security deployment in front of the Gulshan office is that the government is playing selectively soft with a global audience in mind.

That the government is beginning to worry is evident from the prime minister's urging the police and security forces to quickly arrest and contain all trouble makers who are paralysing life across the country.

File Photo

By ruling out military deployment, the government may try giving the impression it is after all not so bad – but that is another way of admitting it is bad enough for some to consider military deployment.
So if the withdrawal of security posse from Khaleda's office was a soft gesture, a signal that the government was willing to concede some space to the BNP chairperson, it might have quite the opposite effect.
She may well go out now and claim the government failed in its attempt to confine her against the 'very spirit of democracy'. That may only embolden Khaleda to intensify the agitation.