Khaleda visits shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal, Shah Paran in Sylhet, offers prayers

Khaleda Zia has visited the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal and Hazrat Shah Paran in Sylhet four days before the delivery of a verdict in a graft case against her which is coming in the beginning of the election year.

The BNP chairperson left Dhaka on Monday morning for Sylhet and reached there in the afternoon.

Local leaders of the party, including Sylhet City Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and BNP district unit president Abul Kaher Chowdhury Shamim, welcomed her at Sylhet Circuit House.

She offered prayers at Hazrat Shahjalal’s shrine at Darga Mahalla in the evening. She also recited the Quran there.

Then she went to the shrine of Hazrat Shah Paran, some seven kilometres from the city. She offered prayers there also after reciting the holy book.

Senior BNP leaders, including Standing Committee members Mirza Abbas, Abdul Moyeen Khan and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, accompanied her.

Thousands of her supporters cheered her lining both sides of the street on her way to the shrines.

As she faces maximum life term imprisonment if convicted in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case verdict set for Thursday, her supporters raised slogans like - “Amar Netri, Amar Maa; Jail-e Jete Debona, Bondi Hote Debo Nan (Our leader is like our mother; we will not let her go to jail)”.   

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad started their election campaigns by visiting the shrines on Jan 30 and Feb 1 respectively.

The next general election is scheduled to be held by the end of this year.

Khaleda visited Sylhet for the last time in October 2013, before the 10th parliamentary elections.

She had addressed a rally at the government Alia Madrasa ground during the trip, but no such programme is in her itinerary this time and she is scheduled to return to Dhaka after visiting the shrines.

“How can we start the election campaign when there is no scope of organising a programme?” Amir Khasru asked while speaking to reporters.